John Carpenter to Be Honored as Filmmaker of the Year at ACE Eddie Awards

John Carpenter, the filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and composer, has been named the recipient of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year award. The honor will be presented at the 77th annual ACE Eddie Awards.

The ceremony recognizes the best film editing work of the year across film and television. It is scheduled for Feb. 6, and comedian and actor Patton Oswalt is set to return as host. Nominations will be announced on Jan. 14.

Carpenter first reached a wide audience in 1978 with "Halloween" and went on to help shape the modern horror genre. His directing credits also include "The Fog," "The Thing," "Vampires," "Escape from New York" and "They Live." On the music side, he composed "Lost Themes" in 2014 and "Cathedral" earlier this year.

ACE president Sabrina Plisco praised his work in announcing the award. "John Carpenter makes movies that get under your skin and stay there," she said. She added that few directors understand rhythm, tension and restraint as he does, and that he has always trusted his editors to help him find it. "That collaboration is exactly what this honor celebrates," Plisco said.

Carpenter joins a list of past Filmmaker of the Year winners that includes Jon M. Chu, John Waters, Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Lauren Shuler Donner, Guillermo del Toro, Steven Spielberg, Vince Gilligan, J.J. Abrams, Nancy Meyers, Martin Scorsese, George Lucas and the Sundance Institute.

Editors Bonnie Koehler and Christopher Nelson will also be honored with ACE Career Achievement awards. Koehler, whose career spans more than 40 years, edited 15 feature films, nine primetime television series and eight movies-of-the-week. Her credits include "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "The Empire Strikes Back," "Return of the Jedi," "Poltergeist," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "L.A. Law."

Nelson has worked as a producer, director and film editor on more than 70 television series, movies and pilots. He won a Primetime Emmy for best editing for the series finale of "Lost," and earned further Emmy nominations for "Lost," "Six Feet Under," "China Beach," "Mad Men" and the pilot of "The Greatest American Hero." His recent work includes "Bates Motel," "Waco" and "Godfather of Harlem."

Plisco said both editors are admired by their peers. She noted that Koehler went from "American Zoetrope" to an Emmy nomination for "L.A. Law" and an ACE Eddie nomination for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," which she described as television's longest-running primetime drama. Nelson, she said, cut the finale of "Lost," one of the most watched and debated hours in television history, and his work on "Six Feet Under" and "Mad Men" helped define prestige television. "Both have given generously to our community," she said.