'Gangs,' 'Chicago' win top ACE awards

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., Feb. 24 (UPI) -- "Chicago" and "Gangs of New York" took the top prizes at the American Cinema Editors' 53rd annual ACE Eddie Awards.

"Gangs of New York" -- director Martin Scorsese's unflinching epic account of gang warfare for control of the streets of New York in the mid-19th century -- topped a field that included "About Schmidt," "The Hours," "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and "Minority Report" for best editing in a drama movie. "Gangs," "The Hours" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" are up for the Best Picture Oscar on March 23.

"Chicago" -- the movie musical about murderous women and dreams of showbiz success -- won for best editing in a comedy feature, beating out a field that also include "About a Boy," "Adaptation," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Punch-Drunk Love." "Chicago" was the only nominee in the category that is also up for the Best Picture Oscar.

The nominees for the film editing Oscar are: "Chicago"; "Gangs of New York"; "The Hours"; "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and "The Pianist."

"Bowling for Columbine" won the Eddie for best editing in a documentary.

The ACE also presented awards Sunday for editing for TV.

Two HBO hits -- "The Sopranos" and "Sex and the City" -- won for best editing in a one-hour TV series and a half-hour series, respectively.

The Eddie for best edited commercial TV movie went to the Lifetime movie "We Were the Mulvaneys." The award for best edited movie on non-commercial TV went to the Showtime movie "Our America."

"Forsyte Saga, Part One" -- a production of Granada Television and WGBH Boston -- won for best edited episode from a TV mini-series.

The ACE honored Michael Ondaatje -- the author of "The English Patient" -- with its Robert Wise Award, in recognition of his most recent book, "The Conversations: Walter Murch and the Art of Editing Film."

John Burnett, A.C.E., and Tom Rolf, A.C.E., received ACE Lifetime Achievement Awards. Burnett has edited such film classics as "The Way We Were" (1973), "The Sunshine Boys" (1975) and "Grease" (1978). Rolf won an editing Oscar for "The Right Stuff" (1983), and has also edited "War Games" (1983) and "The Horse Whisperer" (1998).

Producer Kathleen Kennedy -- whose Kennedy/Marshall production company turned out last year's box-office hit "Signs" -- was honored as the ACE Filmmaker of the Year. Kennedy's producing credits include the upcoming "Seabiscuit," as three of the top-grossing movies ever -- "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial," "Jurassic Park" and "The Sixth Sense."