Gina Prince-Bythewood to receive American Cinema Editors ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award

Career Achievement honors to go to film editors Don Zimmerman and Lynne Willingham

American Cinema Editors (ACE) announced today that the organization will honor acclaimed director Gina Prince-Bythewood with the esteemed ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, recognizing an artist who exemplifies distinguished achievement in the art and business of film. ACE will also bestow career achievement honors to film editors Don Zimmerman, ACE and Lynne Willingham, ACE for their outstanding career contributions to film editing.  The honors will be presented at the 73rd annual ACE Eddie Awards on March 5, 2023 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

“A supremely versatile trailblazer from day one of her career, Gina Prince-Bythewood has consistently entertained us with intimate films and global blockbusters that explore the human experience through formidable female characters,” said ACE president Kevin Tent, ACE. “A champion of diverse, character-driven narratives, her latest film — The Woman King — is the crown jewel of a career spent pushing boundaries and telling stories that touch our hearts and minds. She is a proud supporter of the editing community and we’re so thrilled to honor her with the Golden Eddie.”

“We are so excited and thrilled to honor Don and Lynne, two outstanding editors, for their incredible contributions to film editing history,” stated Tent.  “These two extraordinary editors are responsible for editing some of the most entertaining, moving and thrilling movies and television shows of our time. They are so deserving of their career achievement honors and we look forward to celebrating them at this year’s ACE Eddie Awards.”    

Past recipients of the Golden Eddie include Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Kathleen Kennedy, Christopher Nolan, Lauren Shuler Donner, Guillermo del Toro, Vince Gilligan, J.J. Abrams, Nancy Meyers, Martin Scorsese, Norman Jewison, Robert Zemeckis, George Lucas, and the Sundance Institute, among others.  Past recipients of the ACE Career Achievement Award include Lillian Benson, ACE; 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; Leon Ortiz-Gil, ACE, among many others. 

Submissions for the ACE Eddie Awards open November 1 and close on January 9 at 5pm PT.

Key dates for the 73rd Annual ACE Eddie Awards

• Tuesday, November 1, 2022                       Submission for Nominations Begin
• Tuesday, December 13, 2022 (5pm PT)   Submission for Nominations End
• Monday, January 9, 2023                            Nomination Ballots Sent
• Monday, January 30, 2023 (5pm PT)        Nomination Ballots Due (5pm)
• Wednesday, February 1, 2023                    Nominations Announced
• Monday, February 6, 2023                          Final Ballots Sent
• Friday, February 10, 2023                            Deadline for Advertising
• February 6-23, 2023                                    Blue Ribbon Screenings
• Friday, February 24, 2023  (5pm PT)         Final Ballots Due 
• TBD                                                                 ACE Nominee Cocktail Party 
• Sunday, March 5, 2023                                73rd ACE Eddie Awards

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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