Lee Smith (film editor)

Lee Smith, ACE, (born June 10, 1960) is an Australian film editor who has worked in the film industry since the 1980s. He began his film career as a sound editor before establishing himself as an editor. His breakthrough came when he began collaborating with director Peter Weir. Smith is best known for his work on several of Christopher Nolan's films, including Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), Inception (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Interstellar (2014) and Dunkirk (2017), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.

Life and career

Smith was born in Harefield, Middlesex. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2004) and The Dark Knight (2008). He was also nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing for The Dark Knight and for Inception (2010). He was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Sound for The Piano (1993). He began his career as a sound editor/sound designer for films such as Dead Calm (1989), The Piano (1993) (for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Sound), The Portrait of a Lady (1996) and Holy Smoke! (1999). Smith was also editing films during this interval; he was one of the editors for RoboCop 2 (1990).

He began his notable collaboration with director Peter Weir on the 1982 film The Year of Living Dangerously, on which he was an associate editor working with Weir's longtime editor William M. Anderson. He was credited as a co-editor with Anderson for Fearless (1993) and for The Truman Show (1998).^[1] He was the sole editor for Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), for which Smith was nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing and for an "Eddie Award" from the American Cinema Editors.

More recently, Smith has edited seven films with director Christopher Nolan. He was nominated for a second Academy Award and American Cinema Editors Award for The Dark Knight (2008). In 2010, he received another nomination for the American Cinema Editors Award for his editing work on Inception; Inception was listed as the 35th best-edited film of all time in a 2012 survey of members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild.^[2] In 2018, he received an Academy Award for his work on Nolan's Dunkirk.

Filmography

Editor

Year	Title	Director
1986	Dead End Drive-In	Brian Trenchard-Smith
1987	Howling III	Philippe Mora
1989	Communion
1990	RoboCop 2	Irvin Kershner
1992	Turtle Beach	Stephen Wallace
	Blinky Bill: The Mischievous Koala	Yoram Gross
1993	Fearless	Peter Weir
1996	Lilian's Story	Jerzy Domaradzki
1997	Joey	Ian Barry
1998	The Truman Show	Peter Weir
1999	Two Hands	Gregor Jordan
2000	Risk	Alan White
2001	Buffalo Soldiers	Gregor Jordan
2002	Black and White	Craig Lahiff
2003	The Rage in Placid Lake	Tony McNamara
	Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World	Peter Weir
2005	Batman Begins	Christopher Nolan
2006	The Prestige
2008	The Dark Knight
2010	The Way Back	Peter Weir
	Inception	Christopher Nolan
2011	X-Men: First Class	Matthew Vaughn
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	Christopher Nolan
2013	Elysium	Neill Blomkamp
	Ender's Game	Gavin Hood
2014	Interstellar	Christopher Nolan
2015	Spectre	Sam Mendes
2017	Dunkirk	Christopher Nolan
2019	Dark Phoenix	Simon Kinberg
	1917	Sam Mendes
2022	Empire of Light
2024	Argylle	Matthew Vaughn

Other credits

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1978	Little Boy Lost	Terry Bourke	Assistant sound editor
1980	The Chain Reaction	Ian Barry	Additional sound
1981	Puberty Blues	Bruce Beresford	Editing assistant
1982	Turkey Shoot	Brian Trenchard-Smith	Dubbing editor
	The Year of Living Dangerously	Peter Weir	Associate editor
1985	Burke & Wills	Graeme Clifford	Sound effects editor
1988	The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey	Vincent Ward	Sound effects editor / Sound effects supervisor
	Barracuda	Pino Amenta	Television film Sound editor
1989	Dead Calm	Phillip Noyce	Sound designer
	Dead Poets Society	Peter Weir	Additional film editor
1990	Green Card
1992	Lorenzo's Oil	George Miller	Additional picture editor
1993	The Piano	Jane Campion	Sound designer
1994	Little Women	Gillian Armstrong	Sound designer
1995	Tunnel Vision	Clive Fleury	Foley walker
1996	The Portrait of a Lady	Jane Campion	Sound designer
1999	Holy Smoke!

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result
2003	Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World	Best Film Editing	Nominated
2008	The Dark Knight		Nominated
2017	Dunkirk		Won

BAFTA Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result
2008	The Dark Knight	Best Editing	Nominated
2010	Inception		Nominated
2017	Dunkirk		Nominated

Other awards

Year	Title	Award/Nomination
1998	The Truman Show	Nominated- Awards Circuit Community Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing
1999	Two Hands	AACTA Award for Best Editing
2003	Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World	Nominated- Satellite Award for Best Editing Nominated- American Cinema Editors for Best Editing Nominated- International Online Cinema Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing
2008	The Dark Knight	Awards Circuit Community Awards for Best Editing International Online Cinema Awards for Best Editing Gold Derby Awards for Best Editing Hollywood Post Alliance for Best Editing Nominated- ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Nominated- Satellite Award for Best Editing Nominated- International Cinephile Society Awards for Best Editing Nominated- American Cinema Editors for Best Editing Nominated- Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing Nominated-Italian Online Movie Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Awards Circuit Community Awards for Best Editing of the Decade
2010	Inception	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Editing Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards for Best Editing Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing CinEuphoria Awards for Best Editing Hollywood Post Alliance for Best Editing Gold Derby Awards for Best Editing Online Film & Television Association for Best Editing Italian Online Movie Awards for Best Editing Nominated- ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Nominated- Satellite Award for Best Editing Nominated- Alliance of Women Film Journalists for Best Editing Nominated- Awards Circuit Community Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Boston Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Editing Nominated- International Cinephile Society Awards for Best Editing Nominated- International Online Cinema Awards for Best Editing Nominated- American Cinema Editors for Best Editing
2011	X-Men: First Class	Nominated- Hollywood Post Alliance for Best Editing
2012	The Dark Knight Rises	Nominated- Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing Nominated- Hollywood Post Alliance for Best Editing
2014	Interstellar	Nominated- Saturn Award for Best Editing Nominated- Hollywood Post Alliance for Best Editing Nominated- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Editing Nominated- Gold Derby Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association for Best Editing Nominated- Cinema Bloggers Awards for Best Editing
2017	Dunkirk	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Editing Gold Derby Awards for Best Editing Alliance of Women Film Journalists for Best Editing Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Boston Online Film Critics Association for Best Editing Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Editing Online Film Critics Society for Best Editing Hollywood Professional Association for Best Editing Hawaii Film Critics Society for Best Editing Hollywood Post Alliance for Best Editing Seattle Film Critics Awards for Best Editing American Cinema Editors for Best Editing International Online Cinema Awards for Best Editing Awards Circuit Community Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Satellite Award for Best Editing Nominated- Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association for Best Editing Nominated- San Francisco Film Critics Circle for Best Editing Nominated- San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing Nominated- Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Editing Nominated- St. Louis Film Critics Association Nominated- Chicago Ohio Film Critics Association for Best Editing Nominated- Chicago Indie Critics Awards for Best Editing Nominated- International Cinephile Society Awards for Best Editing
2019	1917	Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards for Best Editing Music City Film Critics' Association Awards for Best Editing Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Chicago Film Critics Association Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Hollywood Critics Association for Best Editing Nominated- San Francisco Film Critics Circle for Best Editing Nominated- Satellite Award for Best Editing Nominated- Seattle Film Critics Awards for Best Editing Nominated- St. Louis Film Critics Association for Best Editing Nominated- Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards for Best Editing Nominated- Alliance of Women Film Journalists for Best Editing Nominated- Austin Film Critics Association for Best Editing Nominated- Central Ohio Film Critics Association for Best Editing Nominated- Online Film Critics Society Awards for Best Editing

References

1. Hollyn, Norman (November–December 2003). "Lee Smith on Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World". The Editors Guild Magazine. 24 (6). Archived from the original on 21 May 2011.
2. "The 75 Best Edited Films". Editors Guild Magazine. 1 (3). May 2012. Archived from the original on 17 March 2015.

External links

• Lee Smith at IMDb
• Kunkes, Michael (2008). "Behind the Cape & Cowl: Shedding Light on the Post for 'The Dark Knight,' Part 1". Editors Guild Magazine. Archived from the original on 22 December 2008. Retrieved 5 January 2009.
• Kunkes, Michael (2008). "Behind the Cape & Cowl: Shedding Light on the Post for 'The Dark Knight,' Part 2". Editors Guild Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 5 January 2009.