Stephen Mirrione won this award in 2000 for "Traffic." He also has a nomination for "Babel" (2006). He has two films in contention this year -- "Contagion" and "The Ides of March." Will he split votes and not be nominated for either?

The action sequences of "Drive" could propel Matthew Newman to his first Oscar nomination. However, the film and Newman are outside shots.

Claire Simpson won this award in 1986 for "Platoon" and was nominated again for "The Constant Gardener" (2005). She is a probable nominee for Best Picture contender "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

One of the most respected names in Hollywood is Thelma Schoonmaker. The editor of Martin Scorsese, she has won for editing his films "Raging Bull" (1980), "The Aviator" (2004), and "The Departed" (2006). She now could be nominated for his "Hugo."

Clint Eastwood's editor Joel Cox won Best Film Editing in 1992 for "Unforgiven" and got another nod for "Million Dollar Baby" (2004). He co-edited "J. Edgar" with Gary Roach, who has not been nominated by the Oscars before.

The complicated structure of "Martha Marcy May Marlene" could help propel Zachary Stuart-Pontier to a first Oscar nomination. It is, at best, an outside shot.

The impressive editing of "Moneyball" could get Christopher Tellefsen his first Oscar nomination. Sports movies make regular showings in this category like last year's boxing flick "The Fighter."

Anne-Sophie Bion could collect her first nomination for "The Artist." Her film is considered a frontrunner for Best Picture, but no film has won without a corresponding Film Editing nomination since "Ordinary People" in 1980.

No Alexander Payne film has ever been nominated for its editing even though "Sideways" (2004) broke into Best Picture and Director. Kevin Tent's unshowy work on "The Descendants" is unlikely to change that fact.

Last year's winners for Best Film Editing -- Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter ("The Social Network") -- return this year with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Both films were directed by David Fincher, as was "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (2008) which earned Wall and Baxter their first Oscar bids.

"The Help" cutter Hughes Winborne already has an Oscar for "Crash" (2005). Though the editing on "The Help" is not the showy sort of work regularly cited by Oscar voters, they may love the film enough to push it through.

Stephen Mirrione won this award in 2000 for "Traffic." He also has a nomination for "Babel" (2006). He has two films in contention this year -- "Contagion" and "The Ides of March." Will he split votes and not be nominated for either?

Five editors -- Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber, and Mark Yoshikawa -- could be nominated for cutting Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life." Rezende is a previous nominee for "City of God" (2003) and Weber was cited for "Top Gun" (1986) and Malick's "The Thin Red Line" (1998).

The complicated structure of  Cold War-era thriller "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" may be enough to get editor Dino Jonsater his first Oscar bid. It is an outside shot for a nomination.

A nomination for "War Horse" would be Michael Kahn's eighth for Best Film Editing. Almost all of his previous bids were for Steven Spielberg films. He won for "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), "Schindler's List" (1993), and "Saving Private Ryan" (1998). His most recent nod was for "Munich" (2005).