American Cinema Editors has announced it will honor The Woman King director Gina Prince-Bythewood with its ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award at the 73rd annual ACE Eddie Awards, taking place within UCLA’s Royce Hall on March 5, 2023.

The Golden Eddie is an award recognizing an artist who exemplifies distinguished achievement in the art and business of film. Past recipients 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. 

“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.”

At ACE’s upcoming celebration recognizing outstanding editing in film and television, the guild will also bestow career achievement honors upon Lynne Willingham, ACE (Breaking Bad) and Don Zimmerman, ACE (Bill & Ted Face the Music), recognizing their decades of contributions to the craft of film editing. 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 and Leon Ortiz-Gil, ACE, to name a few. 

“We are so excited and thrilled to honor Don and Lynne, two outstanding editors, for their incredible contributions to film editing history,” remarked 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.”    

Prince-Bythewood is an award-winning writer, director and producer known for helming such notable features as Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees, Beyond the Lights and The Old Guard. Her most recent feature, TriStar’s The Woman King, tells the remarkable story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen. The film inspired by true events, toplined by Viola Davis and Thuso Mbedu, was cut by Prince-Bythewood’s longtime editor, Terilyn A. Shropshire, ACE. It opened September 16 and received a rare A+ CinemaScore from movie audiences. The multi-hyphenate’s upcoming projects include the Disney+ Original limited series Genius: MLK/X, starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Aaron Pierre as Malcolm X. 20th Television, Imagine Television and Undisputed Cinema are producing, with Prince-Bythewood and her husband Reggie Rock Bythewood exec producing for Undisputed Cinema.

Willingham started her film career as an apprentice editor at Paramount Studios almost 44 years ago. Some of her work includes the miniseries Revelations and Empire, as well as such acclaimed series as The X-Files, True Blood, The Son, Bloodline, See, Your Honor, Ray Donovan and Breaking Bad. The editor has previously won two Emmys and two ACE Eddies, and most recently cut both Ray Donovan: The Movie and American Gigolo for Showtime.

Zimmerman began his film career as an apprentice editor in music and sound effects, finding his first job as lead editor on Hal Ashby’s Coming Home, for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Other notable credits for the editor — who most recently cut Bill & Ted Face the Music — include Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, Patch Adams, Night at the Museum, Men in Black 3, Heaven Can Wait, Rocky III and IV, A Walk in the Clouds and Dragonfly.

American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of motion picture editors founded in 1950. In addition to the ACE Eddies, the organization produces annual events including the international editing festival EditFest and Invisible Art/Visible Artists — an annual panel bringing together Oscar-nominated editors. It also publishes CinemaEditor, a quarterly magazine highlighting the art, craft and business of editing and editors.

Key dates for the 73rd annual ACE Eddie Awards can be found below:

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                              ACE Eddie Awards