Jay Rabinowitz (film editor)

Jay Rabinowitz is an American film editor and commercial editor. He is certified by the American Cinema Editors.

Rabinowitz studied at New York University, where he graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the undergraduate Cinema Studies program. During the program he learned of a film in pre-production that needed an intern, which turned out to be Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law (1986). He is credited as the assistant editor for several films in the next years, including Jarmusch's Mystery Train (1989-edited by Melody London). ^[1]

Starting with Night on Earth (1991), Rabinowitz has been the editor for seven of Jarmusch's films: Dead Man (1995), Year of the Horse (1997), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), Broken Flowers (2005), and The Limits of Control (2009). Rabinowitz was nominated for an "Eddie" award of the American Cinema Editors for Year of the Horse (Best Edited Documentary Film category). ^[2]

His other credits as film editor include Mark Webber's directorial debut Explicit Ills ; Todd Haynes' I'm Not There ; Frank Oz' The Stepford Wives ; Adam Bhala Lough's Bomb the System (for which he was honored with the Best Editing award at the Milan Film Festival) and Weapons ; and Curtis Hanson's Academy Award-winning 8 Mile .

Rabinowitz' editing for Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream (2000) won best editing awards from the Phoenix Film Critics Society and from the Online Film Critics Society. The film was listed as the 29th best-edited film of all time in a 2012 survey of members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild. ^[3] He was nominated for the Online Film Critics' award for Aronofsky's The Fountain (2006). ^[4]

He also functioned as music editor on Explicit Ills; Bomb the System; Weapons; Big Bad Love ; Requiem for a Dream; When Pigs Fly ; and Jarmusch's Broken Flowers, Coffee and Cigarettes , and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai .

For Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana, he edited numerous episodes of the television series Oz and Homicide: Life on the Street . Rabinowitz worked with legendary photographer Robert Frank on the latter's film Last Supper.

In the year 2000 Rabinowitz was awarded at the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing for his work on Requiem for a Dream and in 2011 for his work on The Tree of Life . ^[5]

In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild included two films edited by Rabinowitz in its listing of the best-edited films of all time. Requiem for a Dream (2000) was 29th, and The Tree of Life (2011) was 65th. ^[6]

In 2019, he received the Sophia Lifetime Achievement Award from the Portuguese Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences (Academia Portuguesa das Artes e Ciências Cinematográficas).

Filmography

Editor

Year	Film	Director	Notes	Other notes
1991	Night on Earth	Jim Jarmusch	Third collaboration with Jim Jarmusch
1993	Clean, Shaven	Lodge Kerrigan	First collaboration with Lodge Kerrigan
	When Pigs Fly	Sara Driver
1994	Jimmy Hollywood	Barry Levinson
1995	Dead Man	Jim Jarmusch	Fourth collaboration with Jim Jarmusch
1996	Mother Night	Keith Gordon
1997	Affliction	Paul Schrader
1999	Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai	Jim Jarmusch	Fifth collaboration with Jim Jarmusch
2000	Requiem for a Dream	Darren Aronofsky	First collaboration with Darren Aronofsky
2001	Big Bad Love	Arliss Howard
2002	Ten Minutes Older	Jim Jarmusch	Sixth collaboration with Jim Jarmusch	"Int. Trailer Night" segment
	8 Mile	Curtis Hanson
	Bomb the System	Adam Bhala Lough	First collaboration with Adam Bhala Lough
2003	Coffee and Cigarettes	Jim Jarmusch	Seventh collaboration with Jim Jarmusch
2004	The Stepford Wives	Frank Oz
2005	Broken Flowers	Jim Jarmusch	Eighth collaboration with Jim Jarmusch
2006	The Fountain	Darren Aronofsky	Second collaboration with Darren Aronofsky
2007	Weapons	Adam Bhala Lough	Second collaboration with Adam Bhala Lough
	I'm Not There	Todd Haynes
2008	Explicit Ills	Mark Webber
2009	The Limits of Control	Jim Jarmusch	Ninth collaboration with Jim Jarmusch
	Women Without Men	Shirin Neshat Shoja Azari
2011	The Adjustment Bureau	George Nolfi
	The Tree of Life	Terrence Malick
	Rampart	Oren Moverman	First collaboration with Oren Moverman
2014	Rosewater	Jon Stewart	First collaboration with Jon Stewart
2016	Junction 48	Udi Aloni
2018	Boy Erased	Joel Edgerton
2020	Irresistible	Jon Stewart	Second collaboration with Jon Stewart
2021	The United States vs. Billie Holiday	Lee Daniels
2022	Beast	Baltasar Kormákur
2025	O'Dessa	Geremy Jasper
2026	Is God Is	Aleshea Harris

Editorial department

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes	Other notes
1986	Down by Law	Jim Jarmusch	Apprentice film editor	First collaboration with Jim Jarmusch
1988	Homeboy	Michael Seresin	Assistant editor
	Rocket Gibraltar	Daniel Petrie
1989	Mystery Train	Jim Jarmusch	Assistant film editor	Second collaboration with Jim Jarmusch
1999	Three Seasons	Tony Bui	Additional editor
2002	Secretary	Steven Shainberg
2010	Salt	Phillip Noyce			Uncredited
	Last Night	Massy Tadjedin
2011	Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close	Stephen Daldry
2012	On the Road	Walter Salles	Additional editor: NYC
2016	Norman	Joseph Cedar	Additional editor		Uncredited
2024	IF	John Krasinski	Additional editing by

Music department

Year	Film	Director	Role
1999	Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai	Jim Jarmusch	Music editor
2000	Requiem for a Dream	Darren Aronofsky
2002	Bomb the System	Adam Bhala Lough
2003	Coffee and Cigarettes	Jim Jarmusch	Music editor: Feature version
2005	Broken Flowers		Music editor
2009	The Limits of Control

Sound department

Year	Film	Director	Role
1987	Dead of Winter	Arthur Penn	Apprentice sound editor
	The Glass Menagerie	Paul Newman
1990	Alice	Woody Allen	Assistant sound editor

Thanks

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes
1999	Outside Providence	Michael Corrente	Special editing thanks to
2004	Keane	Lodge Kerrigan	Special thanks	Second collaboration with Lodge Kerrigan
2008	Wendy and Lucy	Kelly Reichardt
2012	Cove Road	Jonathan Keogh	Very special thanks
2017	The Dinner	Oren Moverman	Special thanks	Second collaboration with Oren Moverman
2018	Diane	Kent Jones

Documentaries

Editor

Year	Film	Director
1997	Year of the Horse	Jim Jarmusch
2017	The New Radical	Adam Bhala Lough
2020	Why Is We Americans?	Udi Aloni Ayana Stafford-Morris

Editorial department

Year	Film	Director	Role
2007	Chicago 10: Speak Your Peace	Brett Morgen	Editorial consultant
2014	Evaporating Borders	Iva Radivojevic	Consulting editor
2021	Aleph

Thanks

Year	Film	Director	Role
2015	Hot Sugar's Cold World	Adam Bhala Lough	Special thanks

Shorts

Editor

Year	Film	Director
1989	Coyote Mountain	Jeffrey W. Mueller
1994	The Bowery	Sara Driver
1998	Richard Lester!	Stacy Cochran
2012	First Point	Taylor Steele
2016	Application for the Position of Abdelhalim Hafez's Girl	Donna Lamar
2019	The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating	Elisabeth Tova Bailey
	White Echo	Chloë Sevigny

Editorial department

Year	Film	Director	Role
2015	Notes from the Border	Iva Radivojevic	Consulting editor

Thanks

Year	Film	Director	Role
2012	Bored Games	Jonathan Fischer	Additional acknowledgments

TV movies

Editor

Year	Film	Director
1992	Last Supper	Robert Frank
2000	Homicide: The Movie	Jean de Segonzac
2005	Dawn Anna	Arliss Howard
2021	Oslo	Bartlett Sher

TV series

Editor

Year	Title	Notes
1993−98	Homicide: Life on the Street	26 episodes
2002	Oz	3 episodes
2016	Codes of Conduct	1 episode

References

1. Feld, Rob (September–October 2005). "Method Man: Jay Rabinowitz Finds that the Film Tells Him How to Edit It". Editors Guild Magazine. Vol. 26, no. 5. Motion Picture Editors Guild. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
2. Jay Rabinowitz at IMDb
3. "The 75 Best Edited Films". Editors Guild Magazine. 1 (3). May 2012. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015.
4. "2006 Awards (10th Annual)". Online Film Critics Society. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
5. OFCS Awards 2011 at ofcs.org, retrieved December 12, 2012
6. "The 75 Best Edited Films". Editors Guild Magazine. 1 (3). May 2012.

Further reading

• A short biography and links to six video clips with Rabinowitz: "Artists in Residence: Jay Rabinowitz". Manhattan Edit Workshop. Archived from the original on February 28, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
• Tim Dirks includes the concluding scenes from Requiem for a Dream in his list "Best Film Editing Sequences". See Dirks, Tim. "Best Film Editing Sequences: 2000 - now". filmsite.org .
• An appreciation of the editing in Requiem for a Dream: Wohl, Michael (2002). Editing Techniques with Final Cut Pro. Peachpit Press. p. 132. ISBN   9780201734836.
• Another appreciation of the editing in 'Requiem': Rabin, Nathan. "Requiem For A Dream is intense, but is it great?". The Dissolve . And if Requiem For A Dream isn't the best-edited American film of the past 25 years, then it's at least a formidable candidate for one of the most edited films of the past quarter-decade.

External links

• Jay Rabinowitz at IMDb