My takeaway from this morning’s American Cinema Editors (ACE) nominations is that David Mackenzie‘s Hell or High Water (and to a slightly lesser extent Mel Gibson‘s Hacksaw Ridge) have gotten a Best Picture Oscar boost.

An ACE nomination is supposed to indicate industry preferences on the Best Picture front, right? So the intrigue is not about three well-established Best Picture hotties — La La Land, Manchester By The Sea, Moonlight — receiving Best Edited Feature Film (Drama) noms as much as the Mackenzie and Gibson being among the five.

The blogaroos, remember, have been downplaying Hell or High Water to some extent. Most of the Gold Derby experts have been slotting HOHW in sixth or seventh place on their Best Picture rankings, and a 1.3.17 Gurus of Gold chart has HOHW listed in eleventh place. So basically we’re looking at a Hell or High Water upgrade and a moderate blogaroos fail, especially when it comes to the Gurus.

The 67th annual ACE Awards will happen on Friday, 1.27.

Ballots will be mailed to ACE members on on Friday, 1.6. The voting concludes on 1.17. What’s gonna change between now and then? Nothing.

Best Edited Feature Film (Drama)
Arrival (Joe Walker)
Hacksaw Ridge (John Gilbert)
Hell or High Water (Jake Roberts)
Manchester by the Sea (Jennifer Lame)
Moonlight (Nat Sanders, Joi McMillon)

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy)
Deadpool (Julian Clarke)…fucking Deadpool?
Hail, Caesar! (Roderick Jaynes)
The Jungle Book (Mark Livolsi)
La La Land (Tom Cross)
The Lobster (Yorgos Mavropsaridis)

Best Edited Animated Feature Film
Kubo and the Two Strings (Christopher Murrie)
Moana (Jeff Draheim)
Zootopia (Jeremy Milton, Fabienne Rawley)

Best Edited Documentary (Feature)
13th (Spencer Averick)
Amanda Knox (Matthew Hamachek)
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week — The Touring Years (Paul Crowder)
O.J.: Made in America (Bret Granato, Maya Mumma, Ben Sozanski)
Weiner (Eli B. Despres)