ACE Eddie Awards: 'Boyhood' Wins Best Edited Dramatic Feature

The nominees for film editing are Sandra Adair for Boyhood (pictured), Joel Cox and Gary D. Roach for American Sniper, Barney Pilling for The Grand Budapest Hotel, William Goldenberg for The Imitation Game and Tom Cross for Whiplash.

'The Grand Budapest Hotel,' 'The Lego Movie' and 'Citizenfour' also won film honors.

Boyhood was crowned best edited dramatic feature film at the American Cinema Editors' 65th annual ACE Eddie Awards, held Friday night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

The honors for best edited comedy or musical feature were claimed by The Grand Budapest Hotel, while The Lego Movie was named best edited animated feature and Citizenfour took the prize for documentary feature.

See more The Making of 'Boyhood' With Richard Linklater and Ellar Coltrane

On the TV front, PBS' The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, Showtime's Veep, BBC America's Sherlock and HBO's True Detective were among the winners.

Boyhood faced a strong field of nominees in its category that included American Sniper, Gone Girl, The Imitation Game,Nightcrawler and Whiplash, and its victory gives Richard Linklater's film a boost in its Oscar quest. The awards have a strong track record for predicting the Oscar in the editing category. In nine of the past 12 years, the best edited dramatic feature winner has gone on to win the Oscar in editing. One time in that period, the winner for the comedy or musical category (Chicago) took the prize at the Oscars.

In accepting the award, the film's editor Sandra Adair noted that during the time she worked with Linklater on Boyhood, she also worked with the director on nine other films. She called the experience the "rare opportunity to work on a film that touches something of the humanity in all of us."

In the comedy/musical category, Budapest bested competitors Birdman, Guardians of the Galaxy, Inherent Vice and Into the Woods, and its winning editor Barney Pilling thanked director Wes Anderson, saying that "his unique vision is why I'm here, and it's a gift to all of us.

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Mathilde Bonnefoy, who edited Citizenfour, Laura Poitras' documentary about NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden, described that film's unique challenges, saying, "We were translating into art real events happening around us."

The editors also presented their ACE Golden Award to producer Frank Marshall as filmmaker of the year. Chris Pratt, who is starring in the producer's upcoming Jurassic World, introduced Marshall, calling him "truly a pillar in the Hollywood community." In his remarks, Marshall paid tribute to the many editors his worked with on his more than 70 films, beginning with the legendary Verna Fields. "The editor is the closer," he said. "He or she has the final impact on what ends up on the screen."

Alan Heim, president of the American Cinema Editors, presented the Robert Wise Award to Carolyn Giardina, The Hollywood Reporter's contributing editor, tech, who writes the Behind the Screen blog, calling her a "longtime champion of editors and editing." She cited former ACE president, the late Randy Roberts, as "a friend and mentor," and observing that she had interviewed many of the nominees present, she added, "Thank you for taking me and my readers into your cutting rooms and sharing your enormous contributions in shaping the stories that we love."

At the ceremony, hosted by 24's Mary Lynn Rajskub, Career Achievement Awards were presented to Jerry Greenberg, whose many film credits include The French Connection and Apocalypse Now, and Diane Adler, whose long career has encompassed such TV shows as Kojak and The Rockford Files.

See the full list of winners below.

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC):

Boyhood

Sandra Adair, ACE

BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (COMEDY OR MUSICAL):

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Barney Pilling

BEST EDITED ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:

Lego Movie

David Burrows & Chris McKay?

BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)😕

Citizenfour

Mathilde Bonnefoy

BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY (TELEVISION)😕

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History: Episode 3 / The Fire of Life

Erik Ewers

BEST EDITED HALF-HOUR SERIES FOR TELEVISION:

Veep: “Special Relationship”

Anthony Boys

BEST EDITED ONE-HOUR SERIES FOR COMMERCIAL TELEVISION:

Sherlock: “His Last Vow”

Yan Miles

BEST EDITED ONE-HOUR SERIES FOR NON-COMMERCIAL TELEVISION:

True Detective: “Who Goes There”

Affonso Gonçalves

?BEST EDITED MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE FOR TELEVISION:

The Normal Heart

Adam Penn

BEST EDITED NON-SCRIPTED SERIES😕

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown: Iran

Hunter Gross

BEST STUDENT EDITING

Johnny Sepulveda (Video Symphony)