Thu June 11 - 12:30 PM
Cutting to the Truth: Storytelling and the Art of Editing
Free Talks
| 60 MINUTES
This panel explores the vital, often invisible role that editing plays in shaping the stories we see on screen. Through a candid conversation with four acclaimed members of the American Cinema Editors (ACE), we will examine how choices made in the edit room are fundamental to narrative, emotion, and meaning. Highlighting both the technical and creative aspects of the craft across all film genres. Organized with support from the Blue Collar Post Collective.
Panelists
Michael Taylor (Moderator)
Michael Taylor, ACE, member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has recently joined the board of advisors of Blue Collar Post Collective. He helped create and continues to help curate the long-running ACE Presents at Metrograph series, which pairs film screenings with moderated Q&A’s with the film’s editor. Michael moderated the inaugural evening and has returned to moderate several times. The series has recently expanded to the West Coast. He has been a film editor for the past 25 years, working on both fiction and non-fiction features. His recent film “My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow” won best documentary at the Gotham Awards, the New York Society of Film Critics, the Los Angeles Association of Film Critics, and the National Society of Film Critics, and was shortlisted for the best documentary Oscar. He was nominated for best editing at the Cinema Eye Honors. His fiction features include “Nine Days,” winner, Waldo Salt Award at Sundance, “The Farewell,” winner, Best Feature at Spirit Awards and an ACE Eddies nominee, “Free in Deed,” Winner, Best Feature, Orrizonti section, Venice Film Festival, and “Day Night Day Night,” winner Prix de la Jeunesse, Cannes Film Festival. Michael won the James Lyon Award for best editing of a feature documentary for “Babushkas of Chernobyl.”
Ian Holden
Ian Holden, ACE is a New York City film editor known for editing over fifteen award-winning narrative and documentary features across multiple genres. A drummer as well as an editor, he brings rhythmic sensibilities to pacing, flow, and performance. Ian was recently inducted into American Cinema Editors (ACE) for his professional achievements and dedication to the craft. Recent projects include Take Me Home, directed by Liz Sargent, which premiered at Sundance, where it took home the prize for screenwriting, and also internationally premiered at the Berlinale, and will have its New York Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2026; Adult Best Friends, nominated for Best Narrative Feature at Tribeca (2024), Birder, which was on Esquire’s list of top six erotic thriller/horror films of 2024, and Quantum Cowboys which is on Collider’s list of top ten animated time-travel films of all time, and garnered 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Other notable works include Loves Her Gun, which won the Lonestar best Texas Film Award at SXSW 2013, and was on the New York Times best films of 2014 list. While Ian edits a film, you can often find him dancing or even acting out the performances of the actors on screen.
Lee Haxall
Emmy award winning editor (pilot for “Arrested Development”) Lee Haxall originally hails from Pennsylvania. After attending USC film school, she became a sound editor and post-production producer before finding her passion as a picture editor. She got her big break when a friend produced a show called “Strange Luck” which he wanted cut on this newfangled piece of equipment called the Avid, which she had learned how to use the year before - long story! After several years cutting television movies like Disney’s “Brink” and dramas and comedies ranging from “Arrested Development” to “The Shield,” she began her feature editing career in 2003. She has a knack for comedy, and is perhaps best known for “Crazy Stupid Love,” “Meet the Fockers,” “Sisters,” and “Always be My Maybe.” Nothing pleases her more than blending comedy with heart, and working with fun, nice people, which is why she so loved working on Rob Burnett’s wonderful “In Memoriam.”
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