Michael Kahn (film editor)

This article is about the film editor. For the theatre director, see Michael Kahn (theatre director).

Michael Kahn
Born	c.  (1930-12-08) December 8, 1930 (age 94) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Film editor
Years active	1964–present

Michael Kahn (born December 8, c. 1930)^[1] is an American film editor known for his frequent collaboration with Steven Spielberg. His first collaboration with Spielberg was for his 1977 film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He has edited all of Spielberg's subsequent films^[2] except for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), which was edited by Carol Littleton. Kahn has received eight Academy Award nominations for Best Film Editing, and has won three times—for Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Schindler's List (1993), and Saving Private Ryan (1998), which were all Spielberg-directed films.

Early life

Kahn was born to a Jewish family in New York City. While his birth year has been reported as 1935, Kahn said in 2015, when asked if he was 80, that his age at that point was "closer to 85."^[1]

Career

Kahn has edited digitally since at least Twister (1996), though he continued to edit on film with Spielberg long after most editors had stopped doing so.^[3][4] In 2008, Kahn acknowledged that "people find it hard to believe that Steven and I still edit film on a Moviola and a KEM. [But] Steven feels film got us where we are today and he loves the smell of it and feel of it. We started that way and both really enjoy it."^[5] George Lucas remarked "Michael Kahn can cut faster on a Moviola than anybody can cut on an Avid."^[6] However, since The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011), Kahn has edited Spielberg's films on an Avid machine.^[7]

Filmography

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1969	The Activist	Art Napoleon
1970	Night Slaves	Ted Post
1971	Touch Me	Anthony Spinelli
1972	Wild in the Sky	William T. Naud
	Trouble Man	Ivan Dixon
	Rage	George C. Scott
1973	The Spook Who Sat by the Door	Ivan Dixon
1974	Black Belt Jones	Robert Clouse
	Truck Turner	Jonathan Kaplan
	Golden Needles	Robert Clouse
	Buster and Billie	Daniel Petrie
		Sidney Sheldon
	The Savage Is Loose	George C. Scott
1975	The Devil's Rain	Robert Fuest
	The Ultimate Warrior	Robert Clouse
1976	The Return of a Man Called Horse	Irvin Kershner
1977	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Steven Spielberg	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Film Editing Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Editing
1978	Eyes of Laura Mars	Irvin Kershner
	Ice Castles	Donald Wrye
1979	1941	Steven Spielberg
1980	Used Cars	Robert Zemeckis
1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark	Steven Spielberg	Academy Award for Best Film Editing ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Editing
1982	Poltergeist	Tobe Hooper
1983	Table for Five	Robert Lieberman
	Twilight Zone: The Movie	Steven Spielberg	Segment: "Kick the Can"
1984	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom		Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Editing
	Falling in Love	Ulu Grosbard
1985	The Goonies	Richard Donner
	The Color Purple	Steven Spielberg
1986	Wisdom	Emilio Estevez
1987	Fatal Attraction	Adrian Lyne	BAFTA Award for Best Editing Nominated—Academy Award for Best Film Editing Nominated—ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic
	Empire of the Sun	Steven Spielberg	Nominated—Academy Award for Best Film Editing
1988	Arthur 2: On the Rocks	Bud Yorkin
1989	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	Steven Spielberg
	Always
1990	Arachnophobia	Frank Marshall
1991	Toy Soldiers	Daniel Petrie Jr.
	Hook	Steven Spielberg
1993	Alive	Frank Marshall
	Jurassic Park	Steven Spielberg
	Schindler's List		Academy Award for Best Film Editing ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic BAFTA Award for Best Editing
1995	Casper	Brad Silberling
1996	Twister	Jan de Bont
1997	The Lost World: Jurassic Park	Steven Spielberg
	Amistad		Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Editing
1998	Saving Private Ryan		Academy Award for Best Film Editing ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing Satellite Award for Best Editing Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Editing
1999	The Haunting	Jan de Bont
2000	Reindeer Games	John Frankenheimer
2001	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	Steven Spielberg
2002	Minority Report
	Catch Me If You Can
2003	Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life	Jan de Bont
	Peter Pan	P. J. Hogan
2004	Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events	Brad Silberling
	The Terminal	Steven Spielberg
2005	War of the Worlds		Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Editing
	Munich		Nominated—Academy Award for Best Film Editing Nominated—ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing
2006	10 Items or Less	Brad Silberling
2008	The Spiderwick Chronicles	Mark Waters
	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	Steven Spielberg
2010	Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time	Mike Newell	with Mick Audsley and Martin Walsh
2011	The Adventures of Tintin	Steven Spielberg	Nominated—Saturn Award for Best Editing Nominated— Annie Award for Best Editing in a Feature Production
	War Horse		Nominated—ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Nominated—Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Editing Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Editing
2012	Lincoln		Nominated—Academy Award for Best Film Editing Nominated—Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Editing
2014	Seventh Son	Sergei Bodrov
2015	Bridge of Spies	Steven Spielberg	Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Editing Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Editing
2016	The BFG		Saturn Award for Best Editing
2017	The Post		with Sarah Broshar[8] Nominated—ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic Nominated—Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Editing Nominated—San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing Nominated—San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Editing Nominated—St. Louis Film Critics Association Award for Best Editing
2018	Ready Player One		with Sarah Broshar[8]
2021	West Side Story		with Sarah Broshar[8] Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Editing
2022	The Fabelmans		with Sarah Broshar[8]

Awards and nominations

Kahn equaled the record for the most Oscar wins (three) in the Best Film Editing category, shared with Ralph Dawson, Daniel Mandell, and Thelma Schoonmaker. Furthermore, he had eight nominations in that category—a number surpassed only by Schoonmaker. All of Kahn's Oscars came from his work on Spielberg's films, which included Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Schindler's List (1993), and Saving Private Ryan (1998).

He has received six nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing, winning for Fatal Attraction (1987) and Schindler's List.

Kahn has been selected for membership in the American Cinema Editors (ACE).^[9] In 2011, he received the Career Achievement Award of the American Cinema Editors. At the ceremony, Steven Spielberg said of editing: "this is where filmmaking goes from a craft to an art."^[10] In November 2013, Spielberg created the Michael Kahn Endowed Chair in Editing at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts in honor of Kahn. The first to be appointed to the position was Norman Hollyn.^[11][12]

References

1. Tapley, Kristopher (December 9, 2015). "Editor Michael Kahn on 'Bridge of Spies' and Four Decades of Steven Spielberg Magic". Variety. "Q: Happy Birthday! You’re 80 years old today, is that right? A: No, closer to 85, actually!"
2. Tapley, Kristopher (December 8, 2015). "Editor Michael Kahn on 'Bridge of Spies' and Four Decades of Steven Spielberg Magic". Variety. Retrieved September 17, 2017.
3. Davidson, Keay (June 1, 1996). Twister: The Science of Tornadoes and the Making of a Natural Disaster Movie. New York City: Gallery Books. p. XX. ISBN 0671000292. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
4. King, Susan (April 8, 2018). "Film editor Michael Kahn on his long, award-winning work with Steven Spielberg". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 16, 2019.
5. Ian Freer (May 2008). "The Indiana Jones Diaries". Empire. p. 26.
6. Richard Corliss (March 14, 2006). "A Conversation with George Lucas". Time. Archived from the original on June 13, 2006. Retrieved October 30, 2008.
7. Desowitz, Bill (January 2012). "Cinematic Siblings Still Thinking Analogue in a Digital World". Editors Guild Magazine. Motion Picture Editors Guild. Archived from the original on June 2, 2015. Retrieved June 1, 2015.
8. McGovern, Joe (January 4, 2023). "How 'The Fabelmans' Pieced Together Steven Spielberg's Childhood With Editors Michael Kahn and Sarah Broshar". TheWrap. Retrieved December 5, 2024.
9. "American Cinema Editors > Members", webpage archived by WebCite from this original URL on March 4, 2008.
10. Giardina, Carolyn (February 19, 2011). "'Social Network' Wins Best Edited Dramatic Feature at ACE Eddie Awards". The Hollywood Reporter.
11. "USC Trustee Steven Spielberg creates Michael Kahn Chair in Editing". University of Southern California. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
12. Philadelphia, Desa (November 13, 2013). "Michael Kahn Honored at SCA". University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Retrieved March 19, 2019.

External links

• Michael Kahn at IMDb
• Cinema Editor Magazine Interview with Kahn
• Kahn on cutting War Horse - BTL
• Flickering Myth Article about Kahn
• Post Magazine Article on Kahn
• Movies Made Easy Interview with Kahn