# Thelma Schoonmaker

Thelma Schoonmaker (/ˈskuːnmeɪkər/; born January 3, 1940) is an American film editor, best known for her collaboration over five decades with director Martin Scorsese. She has received numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four ACE Eddie Awards. She has been honored with the British Film Institute Fellowship in 1997, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2014, and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2019.
Schoonmaker started working with Scorsese on his debut feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967), and has edited all of his films since Raging Bull (1980). She has received a record nine nominations for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing and has won a record three times for Raging Bull, The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006). She has also been nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing a record 11 times, winning twice for Raging Bull and Goodfellas (1990).

## Early life

Thelma Schoonmaker was born on January 3, 1940, in Algiers (then part of French Algeria), the daughter of American parents, Thelma and Bertram Schoonmaker. Bertram, descended from the New York Dutch Schoonmaker political family, was employed as an agent of the Standard Oil Company and worked extensively abroad. The Schoonmakers were evacuated to the United States shortly after the Fall of France during the Second World War. In 1941, the family moved to the Dutch-Caribbean island of Aruba, where Schoonmaker's father continued to work for Standard Oil and her mother ran nursery schools. Schoonmaker was primarily raised in Aruba, in a community she described as "a colony of expatriates from over the world"; she also spent part of her childhood in Portugal.
Schoonmaker did not live in the United States until she was an adolescent in 1955, and was initially alienated and dumbfounded by American culture. She settled in Ridgewood, New Jersey and graduated in 1957 from Ridgewood High School. Schoonmaker was interested in a career in international diplomacy and began attending Cornell University in 1957, where she studied political science and the Russian language. When she graduated from Cornell in 1961, she began taking State Department tests in order to apply for positions within the U.S. government. Politically inclined and opinionated, Schoonmaker was opposed to the Vietnam War and supported the Civil rights movement. She passed the State Department exams but failed the final "stress test" when she expressed distaste for the South African policy of apartheid, a stance which did not sit well with those administering the tests. The State Department claimed that her views were "too politically liberal" and that she wouldn't be happy having a job at the Department.

## Career

   You get to contribute so significantly in the editing room because you shape the movie and the performances. You help the director bring all the hard work of those who made the film to fruition. You give their work rhythm and pace and sometimes adjust the structure to make the film work – to make it start to flow up there on the screen. And then it's very rewarding after a year's work to see people react to what you've done in the theater.
While taking a graduate course in primitive art at Columbia University, Schoonmaker saw an advertisement in The New York Times that offered training as an assistant film editor. She responded to the advertisement and got the job. The job entailed assisting an "editor" who was randomly cutting frames from classic European films (such as those by Truffaut, Godard and Fellini), so that their length would conform to the running times of U.S. television broadcasts.
She signed up for a brief six-week course in filmmaking at New York University, where she came into contact with young Martin Scorsese, who was struggling to complete his short film What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?. A negative cutter had butchered the film, not leaving enough negative frames to allow for hot splicing, so a film professor asked Schoonmaker to help Scorsese. Schoonmaker went on to edit Scorsese's feature directorial debut, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967).
Schoonmaker received her first major screen credits when she and Scorsese both became part of the editing team on Michael Wadleigh's seminal music festival documentary, 1970's Woodstock. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing for her groundbreaking work—the first documentary ever to be nominated in that category. Her use of superimpositions and freeze frames brought the performances in the film to life and added to the movie's broad appeal, thus helping to raise the artistry and visibility of documentary film-making to a new level.
The early period of Schoonmaker's career was difficult. Despite being an Oscar nominee, Schoonmaker could not work on feature films unless she became a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild. The union's entry requirements included spending five years as an apprentice and three as an assistant, which Schoonmaker was unwilling to meet. Schoonmaker remarked, "And I just couldn't see why I, who had been a full editor and had been nominated for an Academy Award, should suddenly have to become an apprentice. ...And of course, they couldn't see the sense of why I, who had never been in the union all those years and had never paid dues all those years and had never served my time in their sense, should be allowed as a full editor. So it was quite understandable on both sides. It was just insane."
Consequently, Schoonmaker did not work with Scorsese in a formal capacity in the 1970s; however, she did make an uncredited contribution to Taxi Driver. Scorsese had decided not to edit the picture during principal photography, but to save all the editing until shooting had wrapped. Unfortunately, this left him very little time to cut the picture, as Columbia's contract stipulated that a finished cut had to be supplied by the middle of February. Scorsese brought in Schoonmaker to help. At one point, Steven Spielberg visited Scorsese and chipped in with some contributions toward the final edit.
In the 1980s, Schoonmaker, with some help from Scorsese, was eventually accepted into the union. They worked together on the classic sports drama Raging Bull, which is widely considered masterful editing and won her the Best Film Editing Oscar. During her acceptance speech for the film, Schoonmaker said "I want to thank, first of all, Marty Scorsese; he edited this film with me every minute of the time. I want to thank him particularly for his brilliant direction, and Robert De Niro for his incredible performance which gave me gold to work with — pure gold."

## Personal life

She was introduced to Michael Powell by Scorsese and London-based film producer Frixos Constantine. The couple were married from May 19, 1984, until his death in 1990. The couple had no children.
Since Powell's death, Schoonmaker has dedicated herself to preserving the films and honoring the legacy of her husband, who directed many classic films with his partner, Emeric Pressburger. In an interview with A.Frame asking Schoonmaker what her five favorite films of all time are, she listed two of their films, The Red Shoes and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. (The others were Faces, The Flowers of St. Francis and Raging Bull.)

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Director(s) | Notes |
| 1967 | Who's That Knocking at My Door | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1968 | The Virgin President | Graeme Ferguson | Co-edited with Mark Rappaport and Burt Rashby |
| 1970 | Woodstock | Michael Wadleigh | Documentary Assistant director & editor Co-edited with Michael Wadleigh, Martin Scorsese, Stan Warnow, Yeu-Bun Yee, and Jere Huggins |
| 1970 | Street Scenes 1970 | Martin Scorsese | Documentary short film |
| 1979 | The Kids Are Alright | Jeff Stein | Rockumentary Special consultant |
| 1980 | Raging Bull | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1982 | The King of Comedy | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1985 | After Hours | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1986 | The Color of Money | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1987 | Michael Jackson: Bad | Martin Scorsese | Short film and music video by Michael Jackson |
| 1988 | The Last Temptation of Christ | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1989 | New York Stories | Martin Scorsese | Segment: "Life Lessons" |
| 1990 | Made in Milan | Martin Scorsese | Documentary short film |
| 1990 | Goodfellas | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1991 | Cape Fear | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1993 | The Age of Innocence | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1995 | A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies | Martin Scorsese Michael Henry Wilson | Documentary Supervising editor |
| 1995 | Casino | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1996 | Grace of My Heart | Allison Anders | Co-edited with James Y. Kwei and Harvey Rosenstock |
| 1997 | Kundun | Martin Scorsese | |
| 1999 | My Voyage to Italy | Martin Scorsese | Documentary |
| 1999 | Bringing Out the Dead | Martin Scorsese | |
| 2002 | Gangs of New York | Martin Scorsese | |
| 2004 | The Aviator | Martin Scorsese | |
| 2006 | The Departed | Martin Scorsese | |
| 2007 | The Key to Reserva | Martin Scorsese | Short film and long-form advertisement for Freixenet |
| 2010 | Shutter Island | Martin Scorsese | |
| 2011 | Hugo | Martin Scorsese | |
| 2013 | The Wolf of Wall Street | Martin Scorsese | |
| 2014 | Learning to Drive | Isabel Coixet | Co-edited with Keith Reamer |
| 2015 | Bombay Velvet | Anurag Kashyap | Co-edited with Prerna Saigal |
| 2016 | Letters from Baghdad | Sabine Krayenbühl Zeva Oelbaum | Documentary Executive producer only |
| 2016 | Silence | Martin Scorsese | |
| 2017 | The Snowman | Tomas Alfredson | Co-edited with Claire Simpson |
| 2019 | The Irishman | Martin Scorsese | |
| 2023 | Killers of the Flower Moon | Martin Scorsese | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1979 | Wings Over the World | Television documentary Co-edited with Robin Clarke and Paul Stein |
| 2003 | AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Robert De Niro | Television special Co-edited with Debra Light, Adam "Chip" Pauken, Mike Polito, Ryan Polito, Martin Scorsese, and Yoram Inon Tal |
| 2010 | Boardwalk Empire | Consultant only (Episode: "Boardwalk Empire") |
| 2020 | The Right Stuff | Consulting producer only (2 episodes) |

## Achievements and recognition

Schoonmaker equaled the record for the most Oscar wins (three) in the Best Film Editing category, shared with Ralph Dawson, Daniel Mandell, and Michael Kahn. Furthermore, she holds the record for most nominations in that category, with nine. Schoonmaker is also the first woman to win multiple film editing Oscars.
In 2012, on the 75th anniversary of its founding, the Motion Picture Editors Guild issued a list of the 75 best-edited films of all time based on a survey of its membership. Three films edited by Schoonmaker made the list—all Scorsese's directed and across three different decades—including Raging Bull (1980), which is ranked first; Goodfellas (1990), ranked fifteenth; and Hugo (2011), ranked sixty-ninth. Only George Tomasini, the editor of Alfred Hitchcock's films in the 1950s and 1960s, has more appearances on this list, with four; and only Dede Allen also edited three pictures, each from a separate decade, hers particularly from the 1960s through the 1980s.

## Awards and nominations
### Major associations

Academy Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 1971 | Best Film Editing | Woodstock | Nominated |
| 1981 | Best Film Editing | Raging Bull | Won |
| 1991 | Best Film Editing | Goodfellas | Nominated |
| 2003 | Best Film Editing | Gangs of New York | Nominated |
| 2005 | Best Film Editing | The Aviator | Won |
| 2007 | Best Film Editing | The Departed | Won |
| 2012 | Best Film Editing | Hugo | Nominated |
| 2020 | Best Film Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| 2024 | Best Film Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
BAFTA Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| British Academy Film Awards |||||
| 1982 | Best Editing | Raging Bull | Won |
| 1984 | Best Editing | The King of Comedy | Nominated |
| 1991 | Best Editing | Goodfellas | Won |
| 1993 | Best Editing | Cape Fear | Nominated |
| 2003 | Best Editing | Gangs of New York | Nominated |
| 2005 | Best Editing | The Aviator | Nominated |
| 2007 | Best Editing | The Departed | Nominated |
| 2012 | Best Editing | Hugo | Nominated |
| 2014 | Best Editing | The Wolf of Wall Street | Nominated |
| 2020 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| 2024 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
Emmy Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result | Ref. |
| Primetime Emmy Awards |||||
| 2004 | Outstanding Picture Editing for Variety Programming | AFI Life Achievement Award: A Tribute to Robert De Niro | Nominated | |

### Miscellaneous awards

List of Thelma Schoonmaker other awards and nominations :
| Award | Year | Category | Title | Result |
| Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards | 2011 | Best Editing | Shutter Island | Nominated |
| Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards | 2012 | Best Editing | Hugo | Won |
| Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards | 2012 | Female Focus Award – Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Film Industry | for editing Hugo | Nominated |
| Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards | 2020 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Won |
| Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards | 2024 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Won |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 1981 | Best Edited Feature Film | Raging Bull | Won |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 1991 | Best Edited Feature Film | Goodfellas | Nominated |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 1996 | Best Edited Feature Film | Casino | Nominated |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 2003 | Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic | Gangs of New York | Won |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 2005 | Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic | The Aviator | Won |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 2007 | Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic | The Departed | Won |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 2012 | Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic | Hugo | Nominated |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 2014 | Best Edited Feature Film – Comedy or Musical | The Wolf of Wall Street | Nominated |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 2020 | Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic | The Irishman | Nominated |
| American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards | 2024 | Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| Astra Film and Creative Arts Awards | 2020 | Best Film Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| Astra Film and Creative Arts Awards | 2024 | Best Film Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| Austin Film Critics Association Awards | 2020 | Best Film Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| Austin Film Critics Association Awards | 2024 | Best Film Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | 2011 | Best Editing | Hugo | Runner-up |
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | 2013 | Best Editing | The Wolf of Wall Street | Runner-up |
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | 2019 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Won |
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards | 2023 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Won |
| Capri Hollywood International Film Festival | 2020 | Best Film Editing | The Irishman | Won |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | 2013 | Best Editing | The Wolf of Wall Street | Nominated |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | 2019 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Won |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | 2023 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| Clio Awards | 2008 | Gold Clio Award (Beverages/Alcohol) | The Key to Reserva | Won |
| Critics' Choice Movie Awards | 2012 | Best Editing | Hugo | Nominated |
| Critics' Choice Movie Awards | 2014 | Best Editing | The Wolf of Wall Street | Nominated |
| Critics' Choice Movie Awards | 2020 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| Critics' Choice Movie Awards | 2024 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| DVD Exclusive Awards | 2006 | Best Audio Commentary (New for DVD) | The Aviator | Won |
| DVD Exclusive Awards | 2006 | Best Audio Commentary (New for DVD) | Raging Bull | Nominated |
| Hollywood Professional Association Awards | 2012 | Outstanding Editing – Feature Film | Hugo | Won |
| International Cinephile Society Awards | 2014 | Best Editing | The Wolf of Wall Street | Nominated |
| International Cinephile Society Awards | 2017 | Best Editing | Silence | Nominated |
| International Cinephile Society Awards | 2020 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| London Film Critics' Circle Awards | 2024 | Technical Achievement Award (film editing) | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| Online Film Critics Society Awards | 2005 | Best Editing | The Aviator | Nominated |
| Online Film Critics Society Awards | 2007 | Best Editing | The Departed | Nominated |
| Online Film Critics Society Awards | 2020 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| Online Film Critics Society Awards | 2024 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| San Diego Film Critics Society Awards | 2011 | Best Editing | Hugo | Nominated |
| San Diego Film Critics Society Awards | 2019 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| San Diego Film Critics Society Awards | 2023 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Awards | 2013 | Best Film Editing | The Wolf of Wall Street | Nominated |
| San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Awards | 2019 | Best Film Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Awards | 2024 | Best Film Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | 2003 | Best Editing | Gangs of New York | Won |
| Satellite Awards | 2005 | Best Editing | The Aviator | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | 2010 | Best Editing | Shutter Island | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | 2014 | Best Editing | The Wolf of Wall Street | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | 2019 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | 2024 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards | 2012 | Best Editing | Hugo | Nominated |
| Seattle Film Critics Society Awards | 2019 | Best Film Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| Seattle Film Critics Society Awards | 2024 | Best Film Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards | 2019 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Runner-up |
| St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards | 2023 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |
| Venice Film Festival | 2012 | Gucci Award for Women in Cinema (editing) | Hugo | Won |
| Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards | 2013 | Best Editing | The Wolf of Wall Street | Nominated |
| Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards | 2019 | Best Editing | The Irishman | Nominated |
| Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards | 2023 | Best Editing | Killers of the Flower Moon | Nominated |

### Honorary accolades

| Organization | Year | Category | Result |
| American Cinema Editors | 2017 | ACE Career Achievement Award | Honored |
| British Academy Film Awards | 2019 | BAFTA Fellowship | Honored |
| British Film Institute | 1997 | BFI Fellowship | Honored |
| Camerimage | 2009 | Editor with Unique Visual Sensitivity | Honored |
| Gotham Awards | 1992 | Below-the-Line Award | Honored |
| Hollywood Film Festival | 2000 | Hollywood Outstanding Achievement in Editing Award | Honored |
| Las Vegas Film Critics Society | 2010 | Lifetime Achievement Award | Honored |
| New York Film Critics Circle | 2016 | Special Award | Honored |
| New York Women in Film & Television | 1995 | Muse Award | Honored |
| Phoenix Critics Circle | 2019 | Lifetime Achievement Award | Honored |
| Online Film Critics Society | 2024 | Lifetime Achievement Award | Honored |
| Telluride Film Festival | 2024 | Silver Medallion | Honored |
| Venice Film Festival | 2014 | Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement | Honored |

### Honorary degrees

Name of school, year given, and name of degree :
| School | Year | Degree | Ref. |
| Canterbury Christ Church University | 2007 | Honorary Fellow | |