Oscars 2024: Who is Jennifer Lame? Everything to know about Academy Award winner

The Oscars 2024 were held on March 10, 2024, and film editor Jennifer Lame won the award for Best Film Editing for her work in Oppenheimer. This marked the first Oscar nomination and win of her career. She emerged victorious in the category and was nominated alongside Kevin Tent (Holdovers), Yorgos Mavropsaridis (Poor Things), Laurent Sénéchal (Anatomy of the Fall), and Thelma Schoonmaker (Killers of the Flower Moon).

Oppenheimer revolves around physicist Robert J. Oppenheimer, played by Cillian Murphy, who navigates challenges with a team of scientists for years to create a nuclear atomic bomb. According to The New Yorker, as the film is fast-paced, Lame needed to simultaneously switch between scenes of the trial and flashbacks showing Oppenheimer’s work on the top-secret Manhattan Project. The title is set in the 90s and Lame also had to reportedly make quick cuts to help tell the story through different periods.

Jennifer's career spans around 19 years as she has been part of the film industry since 2005. Apart from Oppenheimer, she also previously worked with Christopher Nolan on the 2020 movie Tenet.

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Jennifer Lame's early life and career

Jennifer Lame started her career in 2005, as she served as an apprentice and assistant to editors till her first collaboration with Noah Baumbach in the 2012 film Frances Ha. Lame gained recognition for her notable work in films such as Manchester by the Sea, Hereditary, Tenet, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and more over the years.

She is praised for her exceptional editing style and has been nominated for several awards as well. She was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Editing for Manchester by the Sea, a Critics Choice Award for Best Editing for Tenet, and more. She also won awards for Best Editing for her work in Oppenheimer at the BAFTA Awards, Critics Choice Award, Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, and more.

During her Oscars acceptance speech, she spoke about the Oppenheimer director and said:

"I was terrified like I’m right now, when I first got hired to work with you and you hired me and it felt like you took a huge risk on me but you never made me feel that way. And you instilled so much confidence in me and I looked forward to going to work with you every day and it’s so exciting to collaborate with you and I can’t thank you enough."

Apart from movies, Jennifer Lame has also worked as an assistant editor for television shows including Brotherhood (five episodes), The Philanthropist (seven episodes), Robicon (five episodes), 30 Rock (one episode), and Smash (one episode).

While not much information is available about Jennifer Lame’s personal life, she is married to film producer Craig Shilowich and has two children.

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The award for Best Film Editing marked Oppenheimer's seventh win at the 2024 Oscars. The film also won in categories including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Cillian Murphy), Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Best Cinematography (Hoyte van Hoytema) and Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson).