Solent’s Hon Doc Anne V Coates awarded a second Oscar

We are delighted to announce that our Honorary Doctorate Anne V Coates was awarded an honorary Oscar at the Academy of Arts and Sciences’ 8^th Annual Governors Awards on Saturday 12 November.

Award-winning picture editor Anne received her award at the Hollywood and Highland Centre alongside actor Jackie Chan, casting director Lynn Stalmaster and documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman.

This is the second time in Academy history that a picture editor has been selected for an honorary Oscar, and the second Oscar for Anne herself.

Anne was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Arts by Solent at the July 2016 graduation ceremonies.

Born in Surrey, she has enjoyed a successful career spanning over 40 years and is recognised as one of the world’s most respected film editors. At 90 years of age, she is still very much in demand, most recently completing the movie version of 50 Shades of Grey.

Anne is possibly best known as the Oscar Award-winning editor of David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Her four other Oscar nominations were for Becket (1963), The Elephant Man (1980), In the Line of Fire (1993) and Out of Sight (1998). Other credits included Chaplin (1992), Erin Brockovich (2000) and Extraordinary Measures (2010).

She was awarded an OBE in the 2003 Queen’s New Year’s Eve Honours List for her services to film editing in the USA.

Although she lives in LA, she is keen advocate of Solent University’s film and media courses and asks to visit upon her trips to the UK. She has given guest talks and critiqued final-year student work.

Coates was interviewed by Southampton Solent in July 2014 for a film archive of great editors being collated by Solent Post, the University’s research and enterprise centre. She was made a Visiting Fellow of the School of Media Arts and Technology in 2013.

In an industry where female film directors are still are rarity, Coates is viewed as one of the best film editors of all time. In recognition of her contribution to film she was awarded BAFTA’s highest honour, the Academy Fellowship in 2007.

She is only the second editor to receive the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s award for career achievement.

When asked to describe film editing, she says, “It’s like taking magic out of the air.”