To cut or not to cut...

As a movie nerd I contantly think about the choices the directors, actors, cinematographers, etc. make regarding the delivery of lines, the setting, the colors, and everything else in a movie. Over the weekend I watched Half Nelson and was so impressed with every aspect of the movie. I thought about the editing choices, and realized how significant they are while watching the Oscars. During the Best Editing award, they showed a clip from each nominated movie, and at the top of the screen showed three shots from different angles of the same clip, while the final from the film was shown at the bottom, much larger than the others. I spent more time looking at the smaller squares at the top to see the options the filmmakers decided not to go with, and I started to wonder what exactly goes into the process of choosing each frame. I thought about the time commitment involved in choosing the best shot from the stacks and stacks that must be filmed for each scene. I'm very interested in this, and want to find out more about the process the editiors go through to choose. What makes "good editing" in a movie? Why were the five films chosen for best editing over all the other movies from last year? How does one determine this good editing? To be continued...