Conversations from the Sundance Institute Labs | Roundtable on Film Editing with Joi McMillon (MOONLIGHT) & more
About this Event Recording
Go behind the scenes to learn from Sundance Institute Advisors in our Conversations from the Labs series. This collection of videos will deepen your understanding of all the creative disciplines that are supported through our Labs including Feature Film Directing and Writing, TV Writing, Emerging/Interdisciplinary Media, Documentary, Producing and Film Music.
In this video from the 2021 Directors Lab, Feature Film Program Deputy Director Ilyse McKimmie leads a discussion with veteran Editors Joi McMillon (If Beale Street Could Talk), Terilyn Shropshire (When They See Us), Dylan Tichenor (Zero Dark Thirty) and Michelle Tesoro (The Queen's Gambit). The panel shares clips from their work and provides insights into the craft of editing, what makes a successful collaboration, managing efficient workflows and the keys to building trust between an editor and a director.
Other conversations in this ongoing series include those with editors Michelle Tesoro, Joi McMillon, Teri Shropshire & Dylan Tichenor; cinematographers Stephen Goldblatt, Robert Elswit, Brad Young and Charlotte Bruus Christensen; writer/director Miguel Arteta, writer/director Walter Salles, writer/director Randa Haines and more.
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Joi McMillon
Panelist
Joi McMillon is an award-winning editor best known for her work on Barry Jenkins’ critically acclaimed film Moonlight, the Best Picture winner at the 89th Academy Awards. McMillon’s work on the feature solidified her place in history as the first black female nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Film Editing.
Her latest collaborations include Mufasa: The Lion King, Disney’s epic action-adventure, The Underground Railroad, Jenkins’ limited series adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel for Amazon Studios, and Zola, the revolutionary, Twitter-thread-based feature directed by Janicza Bravo.
McMillon resides in Los Angeles and serves on the Roybal Film and Television Magnet’s Industry Council.
RECENT PROJECTS:
Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)
The Underground Railroad (TV Series, five episodes, 2021)
Zola (2020)
If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
American Woman (2018)
Lemon (2017)
Moonlight (2016)
Dylan Tichenor
Panelist
Mr. Tichenor got his start in the craft of editing with editor Geraldine Peroni who brought him on as apprentice editor on Robert Altman’s THE PLAYER. Continuing this collaboration, he went on to be assistant editor on SHORT CUTS and PRÊT-À-PORTER [Ready to Wear], associate editor on Alan Rudolph's MRS. PARKER and the VICIOUS CIRCLE, then technical coordinator on Altman's Kansas City, and finally as co-editor on the documentary JAZZ '34, for which he earned an Emmy nomination.
Mr. Tichenor subsequently entered an ongoing collaboration with writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, beginning as post-production supervisor on SYDNEY [Hard Eight], and then editing the award-winning features BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA and THERE WILL BE BLOOD, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.
Mr. Tichenor's credits as editor also include HURLYBURLY (Tony Drazan), UNBREAKABLE (M. Night Shyamalan), THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (Wes Anderson), BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (Ang Lee), THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (Andrew Dominik), DOUBT (John Patrick Shanley), WHIP IT (Drew Barrymore), THE TOWN (Ben Affleck), LAWLESS (John Hillcoat), and ZERO DARK THIRTY (Kathryn Bigelow), which earned him a second Academy nomination.
His recent projects have been CHILD 44 (Daniel Espinosa), TRIPLE 9 (John Hillcoat), AMERICAN MADE (Doug Liman), and STRONGER (David Gordon Green). Tichenor’s latest release is another collaboration with director Paul Thomas Anderson, best-picture nominated PHANTOM THREAD.
Terilyn A Shropshire
Panelist
Terilyn A. Shropshire collaborates with some of the industry's most talented filmmakers. Recently, Shropshire worked with Halle Berry on BRUISED, a film marking Berry's fierce directorial debut. As editor of Netflix's 2020 action movie hit, THE OLD GUARD, Shropshire continued to build upon her over twenty-year creative partnership with director Gina Prince-Bythewood.
In 2019, Shropshire received an American Cinema Editors Eddie nomination for her work on Part 1 of Netflix's 4-part mini-series WHEN THEY SEE US, directed by Ava DuVernay.
Shropshire's distinctive roster includes feature films, such as MISS BALA, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, BEYOND THE LIGHTS, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, and LOVE AND BASKETBALL, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, as well as Kasi Lemmon's films, EVE’S BAYOU, THE CAVEMAN’S VALENTINE, TALK TO ME, and BLACK NATIVITY.
Other notable work includes: SPARKLE, JUMPING THE BROOM, AMERICAN VIOLET, WAIST DEEP, DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN, BIKER BOYZ, and COPS AND ROBBERS, a Peabody award-winning animated short on social justice.
Shropshire earned an Emmy nomination for the Lifetime Achievement Award tribute to Sidney Poitier for the 74th Annual Academy Awards and an ACE Eddie Award for REDEMPTION: THE STAN TOOKIE WILLIAMS STORY.
Shropshire's career success crosses media platforms, contributing to TV projects such as HBO special BETWEEN THE WOLD AND ME, the pilot for MARVEL’S CLOAK & DAGGER, SHOTS FIRED, QUANTICO, and the soon to be released WOMAN OF THE MOVEMENT.
Shropshire earned dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Broadcast Journalism and Cinema at the University of Southern California. She serves on the Board of Governors at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Board of American Cinema Editors. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Diversity Committee of the Motion Picture Editor's Guild. She is the recipient of the 2021 Sundance Institute/Adobe Mentorship Award for her commitment to supporting the future's rising stars in the craft.
Ilyse McKimmie
Moderator
Ilyse McKimmie is the Deputy Director for Sundance Institute's Feature Film Program. She oversees the Directors and Screenwriters Labs and the Screenwriters Intensive, provides year-round creative and strategic support to alumni filmmakers, and plays a key role in the Producers and Episodic Programs.
Films developed at the Labs during her tenure include Dìdi (弟弟), A Thousand and One, Aftersun, Nanny, The 40-Year-Old Version, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, The Farewell, Sorry to Bother You, We the Animals, Beach Rats, Swiss Army Man, Diary of a Teenage Girl, Fruitvale Station, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Pariah, Sin Nombre, Red Road, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Paradise Now, and Maria Full of Grace, among many others. Before joining Sundance 25 years ago, she held positions at ICM and Red Wagon Entertainment. Her roots lie in the theater; her first job after graduating from UCLA was as a production stage manager in the Los Angeles theater scene.
Michelle Tesoro
Panelist
Michelle Tesoro, A.C.E. is an industry rising star, known for seamlessly weaving narrative through the artful and elegant editing of a visual story. Her most recent works include Netflix's Emmy-nominated series When They See Us, directed and produced by Ava Duvernay, and Netflix's hit limited series The Queen’s Gambit, directed by Academy Award-nominated Scott Frank, for which Tesoro won the 2021 ACE Award for Best Edited Limited Series Or Motion Picture For Television. Tesoro's versatile slate also includes Focus Features' biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg On The Basis of Sex, starring Felicity Jones, Bold Films and Participant Media's Shot Caller, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Netflix's Emmy-nominated series Godless, directed by Scott Frank and starring Emmy-winner Jeff Daniels, Michelle Dockery, and Merritt Weaver, Golden Globe-nominated show House of Cards, and HBO's series The Newsroom. The Cinema Guild's SXSW Grand Jury Prize-winning feature film Natural Selection earned Tesoro the 2011 SXSW Award for Best Editing).