Brow Beat

A Loving Video Tribute Highlights Women’s Contributions to the Art of Film Editing

Mad Max: Fury Road’s Margaret Sixel won the Oscar for Best Editing.
Mad Max: Fury Road’s Margaret Sixel won the Oscar for Best Editing earlier this year.

Warner Bros. Pictures

The premise for the video essay “A Cut Above: 10 Women Who Epitomize the Art of Film Editing” isn’t new: Film historians have long recognized women’s outsized contributions to the art of film editing. But editor Tope Ogundare does a wonderful job highlighting 10 women responsible for cutting some of the most iconic films in history, from Dede Allen (Bonnie and Clyde) to this year’s Oscar winner, Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road). Ogundare chooses key examples to show off just how integral the editor’s work is to the film’s style—from Sally Menke’s quick cuts highlighting the tension of Mia Wallace’s overdose scene in Pulp Fiction, to that indelible finale of Michel’s futile attempt to outrun bullets in Breathless, as edited by Cécile Decugis.

The reasons why we can find so many examples of women editing films—and doing so as far back as the silent era—are similar to why women have long been welcomed within the industry as casting directors, too: The act of cutting and splicing film in dark rooms was once considered “menial,” “women’s work.” A New York Times article from 2012 posited a few other reasons why women have long thrived and found gainful employment as editors as progress has remained slow in other positions, namely directing. One psychology professor suggested, “To be a good film editor, you need to select the best takes, and women are better at reading and interpreting facial expressions of emotions than are men.” One editor considers the job more “secure,” giving her a chance to balance her daily life and work hours more easily. And yet another one suggests that the large number of female editors is simply a product of reinforcement—“A lot of women go into editing because women go into editing.”

Whatever the reasons, it’s crucial to remember that filmmaking is a hugely collaborative experience, and not just the product of a single auteur director, no matter how brilliant he or she is. In continuing to acknowledge the importance of editing, we’ll continue to encounter the contributions of more great female filmmakers, as Ogundare’s loving video montage makes clear.