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54 C I N E M O N T A G E C O V E R S T O R Y by A.J. Catoline "I have to pinch myself at times," said picture editor James D. Wilcox, ACE. Wilcox has good reason to celebrate h i s go o d f o r t u n e t h e s e d a y s . A f t e r starting in TV news and years of honing his craft in commercials, series and comedy specials, he just crowned his body of work by editing director Ron Howard's "Hillbilly Elegy," an early Oscar contender released late last year on Netflix. Starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close, the picture traces the path of a boy struggling to grow up in the rural areas of Kentucky and Ohio guided by his gritty, tough-loving grand- m o t h e r M a m a w ( C l o s e ) . It's based on J.D. Vance's best-selling memoir that became a sensation after the 2016 election. W i l c o x k n o w s a l o t about personal journeys. His own started by cutting news, unscripted television, commercials and music videos, before finding a home in comedy on shows like "Reno 911!" and "Everybody Hates Chris." His big break in drama hap- pened when fellow picture editors Monty DeGraff, ACE, hired him on "Soulfood," and John Refoua, ACE, recommended him for James Cameron's "Dark Angel." He went on to cut the hit dramas "CSI: Miami" and "Roots." He first worked with Howard and his Imagine Entertain- ment production company on the pilot of "Genius - Einstein: Chapter One" which he was awarded "Best Edited TV Mini Series or Motion Picture for Television" at the 2018 American Cinema Eddie Awards. Unlike most successful edi- tors, Wilcox never went to film school or ascended through the ranks as an Assistant Editor. Cin- eMontage recently chatted with him over Zoom to ask about his editing journey. Cinemontage: Congratulations on cutting your first feature film. How d i d y o u m a k e t h e t ra n s i t i o n f r o m being a television editor to a feature film editor? James D. Wilcox: I never would have drawn a line from being a news editor to a feature film editor. I started in broadcast journalism, working at Clark Atlanta Uni- versity's WCLK radio station, and that led to an internship with CNN, and there I got exposed into the world of editing. I spent 9 years at KCBS-TV cutting tele- vision news and sports packages. So my storytelling apprenticeship was spent during those years, and it prepared me for being accurate, fast, and creative. I feel very honored and extremely appre- ciative of the position Wilcox: "I found a lot of it relatable," he says of "Elegy." P H O T O : C H R I S T O P H E R F R A G A P A N E The Journey Home JAMES D. WILCOX'S ROAD TO 'HILLBILLY ELEGY'