The American Cinema Editors organization gave out its annual Eddie Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 15, and a student from Sheridan College out of Oakville, ON was among the winners.

Thomas Berger, who studies in Sheridan’s advanced television and film program, beat out two U.S. nominees to win the Eddie in the student competition. Berger is reportedly the first Canadian to ever be nominated in this category, now in its 29th year. He is also a graduate of McGill University’s film studies program.

The competition is open to the first 50 students to submit an entry form. Participants are then given a series of video dailies to edit, which they then submit to a panel of professional editors for judging. Berger received a special student award and mention in the Hollywood trades.

In Eddie’s professional categories, Jamie Selkirk won for best edited feature film (dramatic) for The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Craig Wood, Stephen Rivkin and Arthur Schmidt shared the prize in the comedy or musical category for their collaboration on Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Yana Gorskaya won in the documentary category for Spellbound. The complete list of nominees and recipients, including TV categories, is available on the ACE website.

ACE, founded in 1950, is based in Universal City, CA.

-www.ace-filmeditors.org