With its Best Film Editing award on Sunday, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” became the first comedy to win this award in an astounding 34 years, since 1988’s “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”
Editor Paul Rogers’ deft handling of the multiverse is probably what earned his work more Academy votes than its competition: “Elvis,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” and “Tár.” . But at its core, “EEAAO” remains, despite a poignant plotline about power or family, an outlandish, outspoken comedy, complete with hot dog fingers, magical bagels, and a raccoon meets Ratatouille subplot.
A quick glance at the winners in this category demonstrates the extraordinary rarity of this victory. Limiting the list to the last few decades, it has been completely dominated by war movies (“Dunkirk,” “Hacksaw Ridge,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Black Hawk Down”), ensemble pieces (“Traffic,” “Crash” , “Argo”), action epics (“Mad Max: Fury Road”, “The Bourne Ultimatum”, “Dune”) and musical dramas (“Bohemian Rhapsody”, “Whiplash”).
Between the Oscar for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” in 1989 and “EEAAO” tonight, the only other Film Editing winner that could possibly be classified as a comedy is 2002’s “Chicago.” Best Picture did sweep the Golden Globes in the comedy/musical category that same year. But it was the musical elements of Rob Marshall’s film that we suspect sealed his victory in the Best Film Editing race.
Not so much in this case. Rogers’ achievement in editing connects most directly to Arthur Schmidt’s careful splicing of realistic and absurd rhythms in his work on “Roger Rabbit.” In their respective films, Rogers and Schmidt also needed to combine special effects with live action footage, often for comedic effect.
Now 85, Schmidt won a second Oscar in 1995 for “Forrest Gump,” and his credits also include such comedies as “Ruthless People” and “Back to the Future.” Until now, Rogers has mainly worked in music videos, shorts, and television. His previous major feature editing credit was “The Death of Dick Long” (directed by “EEAAO” co-director Daniel Scheinert), a dark comedy about a man murdered during intercourse with a horse.