Andy Jurgensen won the 2026 Oscar for Film Editing for One Battle After Another, and its climactic chase is also the strongest choice for first place in this editorial ranking. The other nominees—Sinners, F1, Sentimental Value and Marty Supreme—show how editing can shape a scene through rhythm, compression, point of view and abrupt shifts in perspective. The order below is an editorial comparison of reported scenes, not an official Academy ranking or a claim that editing can be objectively scored.
Who were the 2026 Oscar nominees for Film Editing?
The 98th Academy Awards honored films released in 2025 and took place March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. The five Film Editing nominees were:
- F1 — Stephen Mirrione
- Marty Supreme — Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
- One Battle After Another — Andy Jurgensen
- Sentimental Value — Olivier Bugge Coutté
- Sinners — Michael P. Shawver
The Academy’s 98th Academy Awards page records Jurgensen as the winner. The Academy announced the nominees in its 98th Awards nominations announcement.
Best 2026 Oscar editing nominees, ranked
This ranking puts the winner first, then compares the nominees’ reported scenes by structural ambition, clarity of editorial choices and effect on character or momentum. The scene accounts and editor comments come from the Los Angeles Times; the ordering is an editorial synthesis.
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1. One Battle After Another — Andy Jurgensen
The climactic car chase works as both an action sequence and a character scene. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the edit cross-cuts among three cars while favoring Willa’s point of view. That balance matters: the cuts can clarify how the cars relate in space while keeping the suspense tethered to what Willa experiences, rather than turning the chase into detached coverage.
The sequence’s emotional turn is just as revealing. The chase gives way to a father-daughter reunion, but Jurgensen said the original version did not feel authentic. The filmmakers reshot it so Willa questions Bob and he has to earn her trust. That change makes the payoff less like a simple release after action and more like a continuation of the film’s relationship conflict. The Academy also named the film Best Picture and Directing winner, but those awards are context—not proof that every viewer must place its editing first.
Rank #2
2. Sinners — Michael P. Shawver
In the “Pale, Pale Moon” sequence, the edit braids Pearline’s performance, the rhythmic stomping of the crowd, violence against a card cheat, and Mary’s seduction and murder of Stack. The effect is cumulative: music and movement do not merely accompany the violence; they help gather the scene’s separate strands into a single climax.
Shawver told the Los Angeles Times that the initial cut ran three or four times longer than the recorded song before director Ryan Coogler asked him to cut it to song length. The final scene’s compression makes rhythm part of its dramatic structure. Sinners won four Oscars overall, according to the Academy; those wins provide awards context, not a separate Film Editing victory.
Rank #3
3. F1 — Stephen Mirrione
F1 offers the clearest example here of editing as large-scale assembly. Mirrione described a three-minute Grand Prix montage shaped through more than a dozen structural versions. The Los Angeles Times reports that 5,000 hours of footage were captured with 20 cameras around the tracks for the montage; Mirrione described combining in-camera and broadcast footage, including unplanned rain and a crash.
The problem was not simply how to show a race, but how to organize abundant material around a dramatic center. Mirrione said the sequence shifted toward Sonny Hayes as its most interesting visual focus and toward the team coalescing around him. That character-centered structure is what turns a mass of race images into a sequence with a developing arc.
4. Sentimental Value — Olivier Bugge Coutté
Coutté’s example is defined by what the edit removes. To introduce Nora’s stage fright, the scene opens on her face rather than first showing theater patrons entering and sitting. Coutté said, “There are no rules; just rhythm.” The Los Angeles Times describes a sequence that blends panic, chaos and humor while establishing themes of generational trauma.
Opening without the longer setup delays the viewer’s orientation, but makes Nora’s distress immediate. The edit trusts the audience to catch up while using that initial uncertainty to express her state of mind.
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5. Marty Supreme — Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie
The dinner scene’s close-ups and abrupt Holocaust flashback make Marty Supreme the most formally disruptive example in this group. Bronstein described the characters as having distinct subjective agendas, and said close-ups and extreme close-ups became inseparable from the scene’s sensations and emotions. The Los Angeles Times reports that the flashback shifts to an image of Béla sharing honey with fellow prisoners.
The sharp change in register can make a character’s fixation feel like a rupture in the scene’s surface. The flashback also invokes historical trauma, so its force should not be reduced to surprise alone. This fifth place reflects the limited detail available about the sequence’s broader structural role compared with the first three examples; it is not a claim that the film’s editing is objectively inferior.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What each nominated edit is doing
| Film | Reported editorial challenge | What the scene emphasizes |
|---|---|---|
| One Battle After Another | Cross-cut among three cars while prioritizing Willa’s point of view. | Action geography and suspense that lead into a revised emotional payoff. |
| Sinners | Intercut performance, crowd movement and violence to the length of a song. | Rhythm and thematic accumulation. |
| F1 | Shape extensive multi-camera race footage into a three-minute montage. | Structural assembly organized around a character and his team. |
| Sentimental Value | Remove a longer theater setup and begin on Nora’s face. | Compression and expressive disorientation. |
| Marty Supreme | Use close-ups and an abrupt flashback within the dinner scene. | Subjectivity and formal rupture. |
How to read the ranking
The Academy result establishes a winner, not an official order for the remaining four. The ranking above gives the top spot to the film that combined the award with a particularly clear demonstration of editing shaping both action and character. The rest are grouped by the different problems their scenes solve: musical intercutting, race-footage structure, economical character introduction and subjective rupture.
The comparison is consistent with the range of craft discussed at the ACE Invisible Art/Visible Artists panel on March 14, 2026. The Motion Picture Editors Guild’s CineMontage report says Jurgensen and the other nominated editors discussed their films’ editing challenges, collaboration with directors and post-production teams, visual effects, music and assistant editors’ contributions. That panel offers industry context, not an independent ranking.
Quick Recap
Sources
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: The 98th Academy Awards | 2026
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Motion Picture Nominations — 98th Awards
- Bill Desowitz, Los Angeles Times, “5 Oscar-nominated editors break down their films’ most pivotal scenes,” February 9, 2026
- Kristin Marguerite Doidge, CineMontage / Motion Picture Editors Guild, “2026 IAVA: Oscar Nominees for ‘One Battle,’ ‘Sinners’ and More Talk about Art of Editing,” March 18, 2026
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