Precursor: 61st American Cinema Editors Nominations (2021)

A film rarely wins the Oscar without a Best Film Editing nomination. The ACE is a prime predictor of the Oscar category of Film Editing, so missing here is a bad sign. First, the ugly: West Side Story and Cyrano, although musicals, were eligible in the overpacked Drama category. That doesn’t help either film, but losing out on nominations to the likes of King Richard and No Time to Die is seriously bad news for both titles. What’s missing? Nightmare Alley, Spencer, and The Tragedy of Macbeth all desperately needed this citation. Nothing else really sticks out as being absent. This is great news for all of the nominees, most importantly Belfast, King Richard, The Power of the Dog, Don’t Look Up, The French Dispatch, Licorice Pizza, and tick, tick…BOOM!, which probably benefited from the absence of either of the musical dramas being absent.