“Battle of the Bastards” nominated for an ACE Eddie Award for outstanding editing

The American Cinema Editors have announced the nominations for the 67th annual ACE Eddie Awards, which will honor the best in editing in film and TV from the year 2016.

There are 10 categories at the Eddies, spanning TV, movies and documentaries. “Battle of the Bastards,” the landmark action episode from Game of Thrones Season 6, is nominated in the category of BEST EDITED ONE-HOUR SERIES – NON-COMMERCIAL. Here’s what the field looks like:

• The Crown: “Assassins” (Yan Miles, ACE)
• Game of Thrones: “Battle of the Bastards” (Tim Porter, ACE)
• Stranger Things: “Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers” (Dean Zimmerman)
• Stranger Things: “Chapter Seven: The Bathtub” (Kevin D. Ross)
• Westworld: “The Original” (Stephen Semel, ACE & Marc Jozefowicz)

As you can see, the nominees in this category are drawn exclusively from HBO and Netflix, with two nominations for Netflix’s Stranger Things. Another category—BEST EDITED ONE-HOUR SERIES – COMMERCIAL—includes shows from network television and non-premium cable channels that run commercials. Three episodes from AMC’s Better Call Saul are nominated in that category, so it appears the Eddie Awards like doubling up on stuff.

Game of Thrones has been nominated for an Eddie four times: Season 1’s “Baelor,” Season 3’s “The Rains of Castamere,” and Season 5’s “Hardhome” and “The Dance of Dragons” were all up for this award. None won.

Is this the year Game of Thrones finally takes home the award? “Battle of the Bastards” was arguably the most visually ambitious episode of the show to date, and the editing played a big part in that.

From an editing perspective, my personal favorite moment from the episode was the bit right after Jon is facing down the charge of Ramsay’s heavy horse, as seen in the featured image at the top of the post. Then, as you probably remain, the show cut immediately from the placid serenity of that moment to a chaotic clamor as the two armies literally crashed into each other, with bodies of horse and man alike flying everywhere. I think Game of Thrones has an excellent chance to win here.

The ACE Eddie Awards will be held on January 27 at the Beverly Hilton.

h/t Deadline