Thelma Schoonmaker

Thelma Schoonmaker (; born January 3, 1940) is an American film editor, best known for her collaboration over five decades with director Martin Scorsese. She has received numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four ACE Eddie Awards. She has been honored with the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1997, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2014, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2019.

Schoonmaker started working with Scorsese on his debut feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967), and has edited all of his films since Raging Bull (1980). She has received a record nine nominations for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing and has won a record three times for Raging Bull, The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006). She has also been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing a record 11 times, winning twice for Raging Bull and Goodfellas (1990).

Early life Thelma Schoonmaker was born on January 3, 1940, in Algiers (then part of French Algeria), the daughter of American parents, Thelma and Bertram Schoonmaker. Bertram, descended from the New York Dutch Schoonmaker political family, The Schoonmakers were evacuated to the United States shortly after the Fall of France during the Second World War. Schoonmaker was primarily raised in Aruba, in a community she described as "a colony of expatriates from over the world";

Schoonmaker did not live in the United States until she was an adolescent in 1955, and was initially alienated and dumbfounded by American culture. and graduated in 1957 from Ridgewood High School. Schoonmaker was interested in a career in international diplomacy and began attending Cornell University in 1957, where she studied political science and the Russian language. When she graduated from Cornell in 1961, she began taking State Department tests in order to apply for positions within the U.S. government. Politically inclined and opinionated, Schoonmaker was opposed to the Vietnam War and supported the Civil rights movement. The State Department claimed that her views were "too politically liberal" and that she wouldn't be happy having a job at the Department.

Career quote=You get to contribute so significantly in the editing room because you shape the movie and the performances. You help the director bring all the hard work of those who made the film to fruition. You give their work rhythm and pace and sometimes adjust the structure to make the film work – to make it start to flow up there on the screen. And then it's very rewarding after a year's work to see people react to what you've done in the theater. — —Thelma Schoonmaker, on editing She responded to the advertisement and got the job. The job entailed assisting an "editor" who was randomly cutting frames from classic European films (such as those by Truffaut, Godard and Fellini), so that their length would conform to the running times of U.S. television broadcasts.

Schoonmaker received her first major screen credits when she and Scorsese both became part of the editing team on Michael Wadleigh's seminal music festival documentary, 1970's Woodstock. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing for her groundbreaking work—the first documentary ever to be nominated in that category. Her use of superimpositions and freeze frames brought the performances in the film to life and added to the movie's broad appeal, thus helping to raise the artistry and visibility of documentary film-making to a new level. Schoonmaker remarked, "And I just couldn't see why I, who had been a full editor and had been nominated for an Academy Award, should suddenly have to become an apprentice. ...And of course, they couldn't see the sense of why I, who had never been in the union all those years and had never paid dues all those years and had never served my time in their sense, should be allowed as a full editor. So it was quite understandable on both sides. It was just insane."

In the 1980s, Schoonmaker, with some help from Scorsese, was eventually accepted into the union. They worked together on the classic sports drama Raging Bull, which is widely considered masterful editing and won her the Best Film Editing Oscar. During her acceptance speech for the film, Schoonmaker said "I want to thank, first of all, Marty Scorsese; he edited this film with me every minute of the time. I want to thank him particularly for his brilliant direction, and Robert De Niro for his incredible performance which gave me gold to work with — pure gold."

Personal life Thelma Schoonmaker and Columba Powell at the Cannes Film Festival (2009). Columba Powell is the son of Michael Powell, a prominent film director to whom Schoonmaker was married. She was introduced to Michael Powell by Scorsese and London-based film producer Frixos Constantine. She has cited Buddhist concepts, particularly the mandala—the creation and dissolution of an artwork—as an influence on her work.

Since Powell's death, Schoonmaker has dedicated herself to preserving the films and honoring the legacy of her husband, who directed many classic films with his partner, Emeric Pressburger. In an interview with A.Frame asking Schoonmaker what her five favorite films of all time are, she listed two of their films, The Red Shoes and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. (The others were Faces, The Flowers of St. Francis and Raging Bull).

Filmography Film

Television

Achievements and recognition Schoonmaker equaled the record for the most Oscar wins (three) in the Best Film Editing category, shared with Ralph Dawson, Daniel Mandell, and Michael Kahn. Furthermore, she holds the record for most nominations in that category, with nine. Schoonmaker is also the first woman to win multiple Oscars for film editing.

In 2012, on the 75th anniversary of its founding, the Motion Picture Editors Guild issued a list of the 75 best-edited films of all time based on a survey of its membership. Three films edited by Schoonmaker made the list—all directed by Scorsese and spanning three different decades—including Raging Bull (1980), which is ranked first; Goodfellas (1990), ranked fifteenth; and Hugo (2011), ranked sixty-ninth. Only George Tomasini, the editor of Alfred Hitchcock's films in the 1950s and 1960s, has more appearances on this list, with four; and only Dede Allen also edited three pictures across three decades, with hers in particular from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Awards and nominations Major associations Academy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1971 Best Film Editing Woodstock 1981 Raging Bull 1991 Goodfellas 2003 Gangs of New York 2005 The Aviator 2007 The Departed 2012 Hugo 2020 The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon

BAFTA Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.British Academy Film Awards 1982 Best Editing Raging Bull 1984 The King of Comedy 1991 Goodfellas 1993 Cape Fear 2003 Gangs of New York 2005 The Aviator 2007 The Departed 2012 Hugo 2014 The Wolf of Wall Street 2020 The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon

Emmy Awards Year Category Nominated work Result Ref.Primetime Emmy Awards 2004 Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Robert De Niro

Miscellaneous awards + Award Year Category Title Result Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards 2011 Best Editing Shutter Island 2012 Hugo Female Focus Award – Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry 2020 Best Editing The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards 1981 Best Edited Feature Film Raging Bull 1991 Goodfellas 1996 Casino 2003 Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Gangs of New York 2005 The Aviator 2007 The Departed 2012 Hugo 2014 Best Edited Feature Film – Comedy or Musical The Wolf of Wall Street 2020 Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon Astra Film and Creative Arts Awards 2020 Best Film Editing The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon Austin Film Critics Association Awards 2020 Best Film Editing The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon Boston Online Film Critics Association Awards 2019 Best Editing The Irishman Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 2011 Best Editing Hugo 2013 The Wolf of Wall Street 2019 The Irishman 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon Capri Hollywood International Film Festival 2020 Best Film Editing The Irishman Chicago Film Critics Association Awards 2013 Best Editing The Wolf of Wall Street 2019 The Irishman 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon Clio Awards 2008 Gold Clio Award (Beverages/Alcohol) The Key to Reserva Critics' Choice Awards 2012 Best Editing Hugo 2014 The Wolf of Wall Street 2020 The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon DVD Exclusive Awards 2006 Best Audio Commentary (New for DVD) The Aviator Raging Bull Hollywood Professional Association Awards 2012 Outstanding Editing – Feature Film Hugo International Cinephile Society Awards 2014 Best Editing The Wolf of Wall Street 2017 Silence 2020 The Irishman Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards 2005 Best Film Editing The Aviator 2006 The Departed 2010 Shutter Island London Film Critics' Circle Awards 2024 Technical Achievement Award Killers of the Flower Moon Online Film Critics Society Awards 2005 Best Editing The Aviator 2007 The Departed 2020 The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards 2006 Best Film Editing The Departed 2010 Shutter Island San Diego Film Critics Society Awards 2011 Best Editing Hugo 2019 The Irishman 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Awards 2013 Best Film Editing The Wolf of Wall Street 2019 The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon Satellite Awards 2003 Best Editing Gangs of New York 2005 The Aviator 2010 Shutter Island 2014 The Wolf of Wall Street 2019 The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon Saturn Awards 2012 Best Editing Hugo Seattle Film Critics Society Awards 2014 Best Film Editing The Wolf of Wall Street 2019 The Irishman 2024 Killers of the Flower Moon St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards 2019 Best Editing The Irishman 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon Venice Film Festival 2012 Gucci Award for Women in Cinema Hugo Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards 2013 Best Editing The Wolf of Wall Street 2019 The Irishman 2023 Killers of the Flower Moon

Honorary accolades Organization Year Category Result American Cinema Editors 2017 Career Achievement Award British Academy Film Awards 2019 BAFTA Fellowship British Film Institute 1997 BFI Fellowship Camerimage 2009 Editor with Unique Visual Sensitivity Gotham Awards 1992 Below-the-Line Award Hollywood Film Festival 2000 Hollywood Outstanding Achievement in Editing Award Las Vegas Film Critics Society 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award New York Film Critics Circle 2016 Special Award New York Women in Film & Television 1995 Muse Award Phoenix Critics Circle 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award Online Film Critics Society 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award Telluride Film Festival 2024 Silver Medallion Venice Film Festival 2014 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

Honorary degrees +Name of school, year given, and name of degree School Year Degree Canterbury Christ Church University 2007 Honorary Fellow