American Cinema Editors


Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors who are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing. Members use the post-nominal letters "ACE". The organization's "Eddie Awards" are routinely covered in trade magazines such as The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. The society is not an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E., to which an editor might also belong. The current president of ACE is Kevin Tent, who was elected in 2020.

Membership

Eligibility for active membership is based on the following:
  • Nomination or win of an ACE Eddie award and/or
  • Desire to be a member
  • Sponsorship by at least two active members
  • Minimum of 72 months' editing experience on features and/or television
  • Interview by the Membership Committee
  • Approval by the Board of Directors
  • Acceptance by the general membership
Members use the postnominal "ACE" as part of their signatures, as well as on motion picture credits. Until 2014, the acronym was separated by dots "A.C.E.", but this was dropped in order to conform with the more modern format used by other industry organizations, such as the American Society of Cinematographers. The society publishes its current membership on its website.

Board of directors

, the board of directors consists of:
Officers
Board of directors
Associate Board
Beginning on March 14, 1951, the ACE held an annual dinner to honor the film editing Academy Award nominees - and the award was dubbed the Academy Nominees Awards Dinner for its first eleven years. When the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences created a film editing category, the ACE invited them to the dinner as well. The first dinner was hosted by filmmaker George Murphy while Frank Capra handed the awards. The first dinner also included over two hundred guests - including film editors, stars, and producers.
Since the 12th American Cinema Editors Awards in 1962, the ACE began giving its own awards and renamed the event to American Cinema Editors Awards Dinner. In addition to handing out awards to film editors, they also began handing awards to television editors. The "Eddies" name and the statuette were introduced at the 15th American Cinema Editors Awards in 1965. The awards and nominations are typically covered in entertainment industry newspapers and journals such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
As of 2024, the ACE presents 16 categories for film and television alongside special ones, these have gone through several name changes to make distinctions between genre, running time and commercial/non-commercial television productions depending on the category. The list below shows the categories under their current names respectively.

Current Awards

Film

Film

Since 1951, the ACE has published the quarterly magazine CinemaEditor. It began as an in-house publication, but grew to 5,000 subscribers in 1963. In the early 1990s the magazine collapsed into a four-page newsletter. In 1994, Jack Tucker was appointed as editor and transformed the publication into today's magazine. Walter Fernandez Jr. leads the magazine's team, with publications committee chair Edgar Burcksen.

ACE Student Editing Competition

The American Cinema Editors also holds an annual student competition, awarding one student editor for editing a set of video dailies for a dramatic scene. Three finalists are guests at the annual ACE Eddie Awards in February. Applications are accepted through October and cost US$125. The competition is limited to the first 100 students only.

Editing exercises

The ACE Store is the source of the dailies used at most film schools today, primarily for editing exercises. One scene that many film students must edit is from "Buffalo Man," a 1958 episode of the TV series Gunsmoke. The educational film with this footage is called Film Editing: Interpretation and Value, and is available only to instructors of film editing classes, though it can be found online as well. The film includes three different edits of the Gunsmoke scene, as well as the scene's original dailies. Another film, "Basic Principles of Film Editing", was produced by Leon Barsha. Using clips from the movie, Baby Face Nelson, the film demonstrates how the use of various angles would enhance the film's story.