Nat Sanders

Nathaniel Sanders is an American film editor. He is best known for his collaborations with Destin Daniel Cretton and Barry Jenkins. He won Independent Spirit Awards for both Short Term 12 and Moonlight (2016), as well as being nominated for an Academy Award for the latter.

Life and career Sanders was born in New London, Connecticut. He studied film at the Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts, graduating in 2002. After moving to Hollywood, his first job as an editor was on the reality television show The Biggest Loser—a job that he quit when another FSU alumnus, writer-director Barry Jenkins, made his 2008 film Medicine for Melancholy, which Sanders moved to San Francisco to edit. (In 2014, Sanders thanked Jenkins for "saving me from a career in reality television".) When Medicine for Melancholy premiered at the 2008 South by Southwest film festival, Sanders met director Lynn Shelton and soon after headed to Seattle to edit her film Humpday, which was released in 2009. In 2010, he had a minor acting role in Tiny Furniture; he was friends with Lena Dunham, the film's writer, director and lead actress. Sanders also edited Mark and Jay Duplass's film The Do-Deca-Pentathlon, which was released in 2012, four years after it had originally been filmed.

Sanders met Destin Daniel Cretton at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, and in 2012 Cretton hired Sanders to edit Short Term 12, a feature-length adaption of Cretton's 2009 short film of the same name. The pair received much acclaim for their work, and were both nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing at the 89th Academy Awards.

He lives in Los Angeles with his wife.

Filmography

Films Medicine for Melancholy (2008) Humpday (2009) The Freebie (2010) On the Ice (2011) Your Sister's Sister (2011) The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (2012) Short Term 12 (2013) Laggies (2014) Moonlight (2016) The Glass Castle (2017) If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) Just Mercy (2019) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) Next Goal Wins (2023) Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

Television Togetherness (2015)