In 1934 the Academy Awards introduced a new category: Film Editing, awarding an Oscar to Conrad A. Nervig for his work on the movie Eskimo. Often called “the invisible art,” editing has made movies possible since they first began, but the field still struggles to gain the appreciation from the general public that it deserves.
At Adobe, however, we have always been big fans. To honor the art of film editing on the eve of the 87th annual Academy Awards, we’ve put together a quick visual timeline spanning 1890 to 2015. Conveying a sense of just how far we’ve come in relatively little time, this overview features a selection of the major milestones that have taken editors from the earliest manual splicing methods to the advanced digital editing software of today.
