Margaret Sixel

Margaret Sixel is an Australian and South African film editor. She is best known for her work as editor on her husband George Miller's films, including Babe: Pig in the City, Happy Feet (2006), and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). For Fury Road, she won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing and the BAFTA Award for Best Editing.

Early life and education Margaret Sixel was born in South Africa.

She studied film editing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, earning a Specialist Extension Certificate in Film Editing in 1989.

Career In 1984, Sixel began work as an assistant editor and dubber on the Australian television mini-series, The Last Bastion (1984), where she met one of the directors of the picture, and future collaborator, George Miller. In the following five years, Sixel worked as an assistant and assembly editor on various projects such as The Great Gold Swindle (1984), Emoh Ruo (1985), The Blue Lightning (1986), A Case of Honour (1989), and Romero (1989), as well as dialogue editor for John Duigan's Flirting (1991).

In 1994, Sixel was appointed film editor for Kay Pavlou's dramatised Australian documentary, Mary (1994), about Australian saint Mary MacKillop. Three years later, Sixel edited the television documentary 40,000 Years of Dreaming (1997) for director George Miller. During the early 2000s, Sixel edited two short films under the direction of English-born Australian filmmaker Rachel Ward, The Blindman's Bluff (2000) and The Big House (2001). Sixel's remaining three feature film projects have since all been collaborations between herself and director George Miller, beginning in 1998 with Babe: Pig in the City (co-edited alongside Jay Friedkin), and followed by Happy Feet (co-edited alongside Christian Gazal) in 2006, and Mad Max: Fury Road in 2015.

Creative influence and process Margaret Sixel has creatively contributed to the production of numerous projects throughout her career, including Babe (1995), in which George Miller credits her for turning the picture around by "declaring an early cut [of the film] too episodic and lacking in narrative tension, and suggesting the linking devices of chapter headings and singing mice." She received a "Special Thanks" credit for the film, as well as a "Thanks" in the credits of Happy Feet Two for contributions to "the story structure."

In regard to their creative relationship, Sixel has remarked that both Miller and herself collaboratively make up a "complete person." She has stated that being his spouse only helps in that they understand each other's sensibilities better, since "98 percent of the time [they] agree on [their] choices," which is important, "because when you are not in sync, lots of people have opinions in the editing room and you can really go off in the wrong direction."

Because the majority of the film revolves around an intense road battle, featuring dozens of vehicular stunts and hundreds of individual extras, the location team would shoot with upwards of 20 cameras on any given set up. As a result, the editorial team on location processed between 10 and 20 hours of footage on a daily basis, which had to be flown back to Sydney, Australia, where Sixel and her editorial team would work on shaping the footage in conjunction with production.

In 2016, Sixel won the Academy Award for Best Editing for her work on editing Mad Max: Fury Road. By winning this award, she became the first South African born editor to win an Academy Award. She also won the Best Editing award at the 21st Critics' Choice Awards, the 2016 ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic, and the BAFTA Award for Best Editing.

Editorial team and role of gender In regard to her role as a woman editor, Sixel has stated that she does not consider her gender to be relevant in the editing process.

In 2011, as a response to the tenth anniversary of the Tampa affair in 2001, the Australian Centre for Policy Development published a statement urging Australia's political leaders to break the stalemate on refugees and asylum seekers, which was "still sadly characterised by human tragedy, political opportunism, policy failure and great cost." Both Margaret Sixel and her husband, George Miller, supported and signed the public statement.

Filmography

Editor

Other credits The Last Bastion (1984) (assistant editor; assistant dubbing) The Great Gold Swindle (1984) (second assistant editor) Emoh Ruo (1985) (assistant editor) The Blue Lightning (1986) (assembly editor) A Case of Honour (1989) (first assistant editor) Romero (1989) (assistant editor) Flirting (1991) (dialogue editor)