The Top 25 Best Film Editing Winners So Far (Updated for 2023)

It’s time for another one, ladies and gentlemen! Continuing a tradition I’ve been keen on for years, I’m ranking the new crop of Academy Award winners. For nearly all of the Oscar categories, you’ll see me list the top 25 recipients of that prize. Sometimes, our newest winner will appear. Other times, they’ll be relegated to the Honorable Mention category. Who knows, maybe one or two won’t even make the cut? It’s a list series that I’ll do each and every single year, in the weeks after the ceremony concludes. So, while this is a fun way to think about the Oscars in the aftermath of the latest telecast, it’s also a beginning for another column here on the site. Of course, definitely show us your own lists as well, in the comments section below. We’re definitely keen to know what you think!

This week, we’re honing in on the Best Film Editing category, which I picked due to being asked about the winners during a recent Awards Radar Podcast episode. I know I mention it in a handful of categories, but this is another where best can mean most sometimes. As much as that can be the case, there are some real instances where the Editing on display is just phenomenal. Of course, the queen of editors is Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese‘s longtime editor. She’s cited twice below in my top five, for The Departed and Raging Bull. Making up the top tier list of winners for me, in addition to those, is The Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Which one took my top spot? Where did the latest winner, Paul Rogers for Everything Everywhere All At Once, slot in? What about What about the prior one in Dune and Joe Walker (interviewed here)? Did Sound of Metal  retain its position among the honorable mentions, or did it move down/up? Read on to find out…

Here are what I consider to be the 25 best winners of the Best Film Editing Oscar, to date:

25. Lawrence of Arabia
24. Rocky
23. Slumdog Millionaire
22. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
21. High Noon
20. Jaws
19. Dune
18. On the Waterfront
17. Traffic
16. The Social Network
15. Everything Everywhere All At Once
14. Star Wars
13. JFK
12. Argo
11. Raiders of the Lost Ark
10. The Bourne Ultimatum
9. Whiplash
8. The Hurt Locker
7. Dunkirk
6. Black Hawk Down
5. The Departed
4. Who Framed Roger Rabbit
3. Saving Private Ryan
2. Raging Bull
1. The Matrix

Honorable Mention: Ben-Hur, Bullitt, Ford v Ferrari, Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Sound of Metal

Stay tuned for another category later on this week or early next week!