American Cinema Editors (ACE) has announced that film editors Kate Amend, ACE, and Walter Murch, ACE will receive Career Achievement Awards for their outstanding contributions to film editing. Stephen Lovejoy, ACE will receive the ACE Heritage Award, in recognition of his unwavering commitment to advancing the image of the film editor, cultivating respect for the editing profession, and tireless dedication to the American Cinema Editors.
“The immense talent on display between Kate, Walter, and Stephen is astounding and we are honored to highlight their many accomplishments,” stated ACE president Kevin Tent, ACE. “The legacy each of these dedicated artists have built will inspire generations of editors and the filmmaking community at large for years to come, and we’re grateful to play a part in amplifying their achievements.”
Past recipients of the ACE Career Achievement Award include Lynne Willingham, ACE, Don Zimmerman, ACE, Lillian E. Benson, ACE and Richard Chew, ACE, Alan Heim, ACE, Tina Hirsch, ACE, Thelma Schoonmaker, ACE, Janet Ashikaga, ACE, Craig Mckay, ACE, Jerrold L. Ludwig, ACE, Mark Goldblatt, ACE and Leon Ortiz-Gil, ACE. Past Heritage Award recipients have been Cathy Repola, Lori Jane Coleman, ACE, Randy Roberts, ACE, Ted Rich, ACE, Ellen Galvin and Diana Friedberg, ACE, among others.
The ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, recognizing a filmmaker who exemplifies distinguished achievement in the art and business of film will be announced in January. The ACE Eddie Awards will be held at UCLA’s Royce Hall on Sunday, March 3, in Los Angeles.
Kate Amed, ACE
Amend is the editor of two Academy Award Winning Documentary features–Into The Arms of Strangers and The Long Way Home–and is the recipient of the International Documentary Association’s inaugural award for Outstanding Achievement in Editing. Amend also received the 2001 American Cinema Editors’ Eddie award for Into The Arms of Strangers, and edited the 2001 Oscar-nominated short On Tiptoe. Amend was nominated for an Emmy for The Case Against 8, a film that was an award-winner at the 2014 Sundance, South by Southwest, and RiverRun Film Festivals. Recent credits include Viva Maestro!, a documentary about Gustavo Dudamel, Foster for HBO, The Keepers, a Netflix series, Feminists: What Were They Thinking? (also on Netflix), Visible: Out On Television, a series for Apple +, and Dave Grusin: Not Enough Time, which received Best Editing at the 2020 Beverly Hills Film Festival. She is currently co-directing a documentary about pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago.
Stephen Lovejoy, ACE
Lovejoy, ACE, grew up in Southern California and attended both Loyola University (BS in philosophy) and the Art Center College of Design (BFA). While at Loyola University, Stephen co-produced, wrote and directed their first student film – before Loyola had a film department. This film, Examination, premiered on NBC during the half-time show of the first broadcast Super Bowl. From there Lovejoy became an assistant film editor. However, his love for photography took hold and propelled him down another road for a time. He re-entered college at Art Center College of Design, graduated with a BFA and became a commercial photographer. His client list included Time Inc., Women’s Wear Daily, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and a variety of other commercial clients. But Lovejoy’s “third generation film business” roots kept tugging at him, an opportunity presented itself, and he ultimately went “back into the business.”
Lovejoy has been a film editor for over 30 years. He also taught film editing at The Art Institute of California for five years. He taught editing at USC School of Cinematic Arts for six years. Credits include features, movies of the week, pilots, and episodic. Lovejoy has been nominated six times for ACE Eddie Awards and has won twice.
Walter Murch, ACE
Three-time Oscar® winner Murch’s 55-year career as a film editor, sound designer, writer and director, stretches back to 1969 where he worked on the sound for Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People. Murch edited sound on American Graffiti and The Godfather Part II, won his first Oscar for Apocalypse Now and won an unprecedented double Oscar® for Best Sound and Best Film Editing for his work on The English Patient. Along with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, Murch was a founding member of American Zoetrope. He is universally acknowledged as a master in his field and his robust filmography includes highly regarded films such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Ghost, Cold Mountain, The Conversation and THX-1138.
