The Artist Behind the Edit: Nancy Novack, ACE

In this episode of AART, Chris welcomes multi-award-winning American film editor, producer and writer Nancy Novack, ACE, for a biographical conversation about the life, experiences and creative choices behind her distinguished career in film.

For more than 25 years, Nancy has helped shape documentary and feature films for HBO, PBS, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu and Starz. Her work has appeared at leading international film festivals, including Sundance, Venice, Tribeca, Hot Docs and Telluride, and has contributed to productions honored with Emmy, Peabody, duPont and George Polk awards.

Nancy traces her journey from her early interest in film to becoming one of the industry’s most respected documentary editors. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in communications and a concentration in film theory, she entered the profession as an apprentice picture editor on Penny Marshall’s Awakenings, starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.

Those formative experiences marked the beginning of a career devoted to telling meaningful stories about people, history, culture and social change. Working her way through the film industry, Nancy developed a creative voice that would eventually bring her into collaboration with some of documentary filmmaking’s most accomplished directors and producers.

Nancy won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming for Spike Lee’s acclaimed HBO documentary When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Her extensive credits also include All In: The Fight for Democracy, Battleground, All Static & Noise, Grass Is Greener, My Lai, The Vote, Broadway: The American Musical, Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies, Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music and N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear.

This episode of AART is an intimate look at the woman behind an extraordinary body of work: her beginnings, influences, achievements and enduring belief in film as an art form capable of connecting people and illuminating the world around us.

Nancy’s links:

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0636794/

Website: https://www.odessafilms.com/nancy-novack.html Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bklyn_novack/ Instagram: @bkln_novack

Nancy’s dinner party guests:

John Lennon

Paul McCartney