Zach Staenberg

A winner of multiple awards for his astounding editing skills, including an Academy Award for "The Matrix" in 2000, Zach Staenberg is one of the industry's most well-respected film editors. His career began in the early 1980s when he edited a series of short films, which led to a job editing the first "Police Academy" comedy in 1984. This was not an auspicious start. Though few of his early films are very memorable, Staenberg did edit consistently. It was in 1996 that he cut the TV gangster drama "Gotti," a film where his talent shined through and earned him several awards and nominations, including a nomination at the Emmys. That same year he worked with the Wachowski Brothers on their debut feature, the lesbian crime flick "Bound." This was the beginning of an alliance that led Staenberg to edit all three of "The Matrix" films. His kinetic editing work on the first film of the action-packed trilogy grabbed attention across the film industry and won him an Oscar. Throughout the 2000s he continued to work on high-profile features, including the thrillers "Antitrust" and "Lord of War" and the Wachowskis' Day-Glo "Speed Racer."