From The Empire Strikes Back to Robin Hood, award-winning Foley artist Gary Hecker of Todd-AO says it takes "timing and a huge creative mind" to be the man behind the sound. Here, he shares tips and tricks he's learned during a career that has spanned more than 200 films.

The mumblecore genre is characterized by naturalistic settings and shooting styles, improvised dialogue, non-professional actors and twentysomethings sitting around and talking to each other about their lives. It doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that would be gracing the local multiplex anytime soon, but it has finally gone (relatively) mainstream with the limited release of Noah Baumbach's Greenberg.

Weeks of debate over "Will James Cameron be the King of the World once again?" or "Will the ex-Mrs. Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow, reign supreme?" were quieted last night as Bigelow's The Hurt Locker won six of its nine Academy Award nominations, including those for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, Sound and Sound Editing. The award makes Bigelow the first woman to receive an Oscar for Best Director.

The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced the winners of the eighth annual VES Awards; to no one’s surprise, the big winner was James Cameron’s technically innovative, sci-fi epic, Avatar, which won six awards.

Casino Jack and the United States of Money marks the third feature film collaboration between director Alex Gibney (Oscar-winner for Taxi to the Dark Side) and editor-producer Alison Ellwood and co-editor Lindy Jankura. Ellwood and Jankura recently spoke with MM about working with Gibney and cutting documentaries.

It sometimes seems like a once-a-year event that a new horror movie starts building buzz as a total throwback to the truly great (and actually scary) thrillers of the 1970s and '80s. "No, but this one's different," everyone says and, in the end, you wind up disappointed. Ti West's The House of the Devil is the latest such film. But—like Eli Roth's Cabin Fever before it—this one is different.

In his eighth trip to Park City for the 2010 fest, editor Brian Kates saw his latest project Jack Goes Boating—a film from first-time director and Academy Award-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman—get its world premiere. Kates took the time to tell MM all about working with Philip Seymour Hoffman the actor-director, his life at the Sundance Film Festival and the editing technique used in Avatar that he decided to try on Jack Goes Boating.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced its nominations for the Orange British Academy Film Awards. The winners will be announced on February 21st.

If it weren’t for awards ceremonies, the city of Los Angeles would suffer an existential crisis. Thankfully, the American Cinema Editors (ACE), an association for film and television editors, is doing its part to keep Southern California from confusing itself with their very own “Eddie Awards.”

The Online Film Critics Society, an organization comprised of Internet-based film journalists, has named Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker the best film of 2009. The film, about Iraq War explosives experts, also took home the awards for Best Director, Best Actor (Jeremy Renner) and Best Editing (Chris Innis and Bob Murawski). Fellow Best Picture nominee Inglourious Basterds also won four awards, those being Best Actress (Melanie Laurent), Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz), Best Original Screenplay (Quentin Tarantino) and Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson).

The subtlety of sound mixing is often lost on the average Friday night movie patron. Perhaps he or she will get the shivers from a swelling Fray single over the closing credits, but is likely to take for granted sound’s nuanced texture in a film: Leaves crunching underfoot, door hinges squeaking, knuckles cracking, etc.

What editor wouldn't jump at the opportunity to spend four days in a tropical locale honing his or her craft, rubbing elbows with leaders in the field and going home with $5,000 worth of swag?

We’ve all seen those stately biopics (usually with Oscar aspirations), in which renowned actors portray real-life historical figures (Patton, Queen Elizabeth, Gandhi, etc). They are often interesting as history, sometimes less so as fully-realized movies. But a fascinating sub-genre exists when a real historical figure interacts with a fictional character. What happens when a make-believe protagonist is thrown into the mix?

In the early days of his career, Jason Stewart was like many people looking to break into film and television work. After graduating with a film degree from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University, he moved to Los Angeles and pretty much took the first job he was offered. It turned out to be a shrewd move.

Earlier today, the Independent Film Project announced the nominees for the 19th Annual Gotham Independent Film Awards. Michelle Byrd, executive director of the IFP, was enthusiastic about the nominations. "Ranging from the small gems produced on micro-budgets to extraordinary films from specialty distributors, the nominees all share the type of creative vision and risk-taking that are a hallmark of independent film," she says.

Alfred Hitchcock knew how to keep an audience on the edge of its seat. Though he loathed movie promotions, the master of suspense could have been the master of movie trailers. His films were feature-length cliffhangers—and the cliffhanger is the most important element of a successful movie trailer.

A veteran of film and TV trailers and music videos, Doobie White is the editor (along with Peter Amundson and Fernando Villena) of the new action-thriller Gamer and worked on the film's digital effects at his post-production facility, Therapy. He also served double duty on the new documentary Transcendent Man (which premiered at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival), a film that he both edited and executive produced. Just before Gamer's release, MM spoke with White about the thrill of editing action movies.

When Marshall Curry took a break from his job working for a Web design company so that he could make films, he had not been to film school nor had he received any formal film training; he went out, bought a camera and started shooting.

Post-production studio Digital Jungle Post, located in Hollywood, has announced a business alliance with Go Edit, a post-production rental, sales and technical support company.

One of the film industry's most revered journalists, Anne Thompson recently announced that her popular blog, "Thompson on Hollywood," will moved from Variety.com to indieWIRE.

The fifth annual NY Post|Production Conference, organized by the digital media training center Future Media Concepts in association with the National Association of Broadcasters, will be held in New York City from October 5-8, 2009. At the conference, leading industry professionals will instruct attendees on the new technology needed by those pursuing careers in the production, post-production, broadcast and new media fields.

On July 7, 2009, the American Cinema Editors announced Avid Media Composer would be honored with the first-ever ACE Technical Excellence Award. “One of Avid’s unique characteristics is the fact that many of its employees are also experienced artists themselves, and so like us, they are obsessive about solving real challenges that actually make a difference in the editing room," says ACE president Randy Roberts.

The Internet offers moviemakers a unique opportunity for sharing their work with the world. But distribution is not the only way the Web can assist aspiring and seasoned auteurs alike. From pre-production through post, millions of Websites help today’s cinema artists further their careers. How can you separate the best from the rest? For starters, you can use our second annual roundup of the 50 Best Websites for Moviemakers.

David Rennke has been an editor for more than 20 years and has used every editing system imaginable—but always finds himself gravitating back to Avid.

Touted as the first seminar of its kind about the art and technique of film editing, EditFest NY returns to Manhattan on June 12 to bring aspiring moviemakers together with some of the most sought-after editors in the biz. Presented by Manhattan Edit Workshop and American Cinema Editors, the weekend event offers attendees Q&A sessions, panel discussions and networking opportunities at an opening night gala reception.

Suicide is not supposed to be funny. Yet My Suicide—A Self-Inflicted Comedy, directed by David Lee Miller, has been a hit at numerous film festivals. Edited in association with Digital Jungle, My Suicide is the visually stunning story of Archie Williams, who plans to commit suicide on camera for a school project. Everyone begins to get involved in Archie's life, for right and wrong reasons, creating an independent gem on screen.

New York-based audio production and post services studio Sound Lounge has been on a hot streak, working on two Oscar-nominated films (Rachel Getting Married and Frozen River), successful advertising campaigns for corporate giants E*TRADE, Castrol and H&R Block and three innovative indies shown at this year's SXSW: Splinterheads, Breaking Upwards and Saint Misbehavin'. Veteran sound editor and mixer Cory Melious spoke with MovieMaker about his busy schedule, struggling to mix sound for computers and whether or not it can really be fixed in post.

As predicated, Danny Boyle's little-indie-that-could, Slumdog Millionaire, took home the most awards at last night's Oscar ceremony, claiming eight Golden Guys in all, including those for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography for Anthony Dod Mantle, Best Editing for Chris Dickens and two nods for its music, one for Best Original Score and the other for Best Original Song.

Since first winning acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2008, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire has gone on to win the hearts of audiences the world over. It’s the tale of Jamal, a young boy from the slums of Mumbai, who becomes a national phenomenon when he wins India’s version of “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?”

John Lyons is not the kind of editor to remain satisfied working in solely one genre. After working as an assistant editor on such wildly diverse movies as Wag the Dog, Sphere, The Siege, Keeping the Faith and Gosford Park, he made an impressive transition to editor on Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore. The latest proof of Lyons’ editing prowess can be seen in Adam Salky’s Dare, which premieres at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The prospect of working with a language foreign to one’s own would be a daunting challenge for virtually anyone. Yet, Amreeka, in which more than half the language is spoken in Arabic, was an adventure on which editor Keith Reamer was eager to embark.

With technological breakthroughs and inventive storytelling, Frank Miller is making sure that the innovative spirit of his friend and mentor Will Eisner lives on in his latest directorial effort.

Any moviemaker would jump at the chance to work on a Bryan Singer movie. However, editor and composer John Ottman, who has cut and scored every one of Singer's flicks excluding only X-Men (which Ottman declined so he could direct his debut feature, Urban Legends: Final Cut), does not greet each opportunity with glee. In fact, he refers to going to work on each movie as going to "editing jail." He says this in jest... well, mostly in jest.

Thanks to his role in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke's trophy room will soon need a renovation. The awards that he's been nominated for, or already won, are piling up, but the man who deserves maybe the most thanks is a name very few are familiar with: Editor Andrew Weisblum.

As Quantum of Solace is released in theaters, editor Matt Chessé discusses cutting the latest Bond film—which also happens to be his seventh collaboration with director Marc Forster.