Thelma Schoonmaker is an American film editor, known for her over five decades of work with director Martin Scorsese.
17 Facts About Thelma Schoonmaker
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Thelma Schoonmaker has received numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, as well as a Golden Lion in 2014 and the BAFTA Fellowship in 2019.
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Thelma Schoonmaker has received eight Academy Award for Best Film Editing nominations, the most in Academy history alongside frequent Steven Spielberg collaborator Michael Kahn.
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Thelma Schoonmaker started working with Scorsese on his debut feature film Who's That Knocking at My Door, and has edited all of Scorsese's films since Raging Bull.
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In 1941, the family moved to the Dutch-Caribbean island of Aruba, where Thelma Schoonmaker's father continued to work for Standard Oil and her mother ran nursery schools.
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Thelma Schoonmaker was primarily raised in Aruba, in a community she described as "a colony of expatriates from over the world"; she spent part of her childhood in Portugal.
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Thelma Schoonmaker did not live in the United States until she was an adolescent in 1955, and was initially alienated and dumbfounded by American culture.
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Thelma Schoonmaker was interested in a career in international diplomacy and began attending Cornell University in 1957, where she studied political science and the Russian language.
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Politically inclined and opinionated, Thelma Schoonmaker was opposed to the Vietnam War and supported the Civil Rights Movement.
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Thelma Schoonmaker passed the State Department exams but failed the final "stress test" when she expressed distaste for the South African policy of apartheid, a stance which did not sit well with those administering the tests.
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Thelma Schoonmaker responded to the advertisement and got the job.
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Thelma Schoonmaker edited Scorsese's first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door.
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At NYU, Thelma Schoonmaker met filmmaker Michael Wadleigh and later edited his influential music festival documentary, Woodstock, on which Scorsese worked.
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The union's entry requirements included spending five years as an apprentice and three as an assistant, which Thelma Schoonmaker was unwilling to meet.
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Consequently, Thelma Schoonmaker did not work with Scorsese in a formal capacity in the 1970s; however, she did make an uncredited contribution to Taxi Driver.
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Thelma Schoonmaker was introduced to Michael Powell by Scorsese and London-based film producer Frixos Constantine.
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Since Powell's death, Thelma Schoonmaker has dedicated herself to preserving the films and honoring the legacy of her husband, who directed many classic films, including The Red Shoes.