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So we have wrapped up the 2012 Oscar season. Wrapped it up in a towel, dumped that towel in a trash bag, thrown that trash bag into a pit, and set that pit on fire. We can stop talking about whether Meryl or Viola will win Best Actress, if Janus Kaminski can finally win his long overdue first Oscar for The Tree of Life, and which movie has the best chance of beating The Artist for Best Picture. Never again will those topics be up for debate.

But are we done thinking and talking about the Oscars? Of course not! That's a year-round event, whether it's looking backward or looking forward (there is no such thing as the present when it comes to the Oscars; everything has either already happened or is going to) there is always something to talk about. Recently a reader sent me a question about one of the stranger nomination snubs of the last couple of years. It was something everyone was talking about when it happened, and nobody was able to explain. I do my best.

“How was Inception NOT nominated for Best Editing?! I am a bit of a movie geek so I look for or notice things that most movie goers probably wouldn't and the way Inception was put together and all the different threads, strands, and layers tie together at the end I thought was really impressive and deserved a win or at least a nomination. When the nominations came out that year and I saw it wasn't even nominated I was dumbstruck. What the hell happened there? Why wasn't it at least nominated? Any ideas?”

Man, I am as baffled as you are. On paper, Inception seems like the perfect Best Film Editing nominee. It's a big Hollywood blockbuster that still holds onto its gravitas, and when films pull off that combination they tend to get nominated. District 9, The Dark Knight, The Bourne Ultimatum, Gladiator, and The Matrix were all nominated for Best Film Editing, even though only two of those were nominated for Best Picture. I think people thought of Inception as a contender to steal the Best Film Editing Oscar from The Social Network.

It's important to remember that this category, more than any other except for Best Director, matches up with Best Picture. 2010 was the third year in a row that all five Best Film Editing nominees were also Best Picture nominees (this year broke the trend when Girl with the Dragon Tattoo could not be denied, winning the Oscar over The Artist and Hugo). Especially since the Best Picture category has expanded, this category has gotten more competitive, since there are more films making a claim in this category.

Obviously the main precursor for this Oscar is the ACE Eddie award, since the Guild is always the most important thing to look at when trying to figure out what was going to be nominated. Sometimes the Eddie matches up perfectly with Oscar; in 2007 and 2008, all five of the Best Editing-Drama nominees scored Oscar nominations. But in both 2006 and 2009 the two categories only matched three out of five. The Queen, Casino Royale, Star Trek, and Up in the Air were snubbed in favor of Blood Diamond, Children of Men, Inglourious Basterds, and Precious. Notice that that is a mix of both big budget action and smaller drama. It is very rare for comedies to get nominated for Best Film Editing. Before The Artist, the last film nominated for both the Best Editing-Musical/Comedy Eddie and the Oscar was Walk the Line, which isn't really a musical or a comedy, but that's a different issue altogether.

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