Michael Kahn (film editor)

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

Michael Kahn (born in New York, December 8, 1935) is an American film editor. His credits range from TV's Hogan's Heroes to feature films directed by George C. Scott (The Savage is Loose) and Steven Spielberg, with whom he has had an extended, notable collaboration over more than thirty years.

Kahn is a member of the American Cinema Editors (ACE). He is one of the few editors who still edits on film (though he has edited digitally on projects not directed by Spielberg). Kahn acknowledged "People find it hard to believe that Steven and I still edit film on a Moviola and a KEM. [But] Steven feels that 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." George Lucas remarked "Michael Kahn can cut faster on a Moviola than anybody can cut on an Avid." . The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn became the first film Kahn edited digitally using Avid for Spielberg though he has edited digitally before for projects like Twister.

Awards

Kahn is the most-nominated editor in Academy Awards history with seven nominations. In addition Kahn holds the record for the most wins (three) in the category of the Academy Awards for Best Film Editing, tied with Thelma Schoonmaker, Daniel Mandell, and Ralph Dawson. All of the films for which he won Oscars were directed by Steven Spielberg: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Schindler's List (1993), and Saving Private Ryan (1998).

He has also received six BAFTA nominations for Best Editing, winning two for Schindler's List and Fatal Attraction.

In 2011, he became the recipient of the American Cinema Editors's Lifetime Career Achievement Award.

External links

• Michael Kahn at the Internet Movie Database