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F E A T U R E William Goldenberg. 36 C I N E M O N T A G E By Su Fang Tham L eaving pre-med and setting out for the edit bay isn't the most common career path, but it's worked out pret- ty well for William Goldenberg, ACE. "I hated the first year of pre-med," said Goldenberg, a picture editor known for his work on numerous films, including "The Imitation Game" (2014), "Zero Dark Thirty" (2012), and "Heat" (1995). At the time, he was attending Temple University, "which has a very good film school and I love the movies. So I trans- ferred to the film school," said Goldenberg, who won an Academy Award for "Argo," the Ben Affleck-directed thriller about a real-life daring rescue during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Over the past 17 years, he has become Af- fleck's go-to editor, with "Air" marking their fourth collaboration. Starring Matt Damon, Affleck, Viola Davis, and Jason Bateman, the Nike-themed biographical sports drama premiered last year and has performed well on Amazon Prime. His college experience set up Golden- berg's path. "My professor encouraged me a lot and suggested that I move to California with the idea of becoming a film editor," he recalled. When Hill-Mandelker Films was going to shoot a made-for-TV movie, "High School U.S.A." (1983), he seized the opportunity for his first break. "They asked me if I wanted to be a set PA and I said, 'Well, I'd really love to be the apprentice editor.' And they said yes - shockingly! I would never tell anybody A BRILLIANT CAREER HOW WILLIAM GOLDENBERG BECAME A GO-TO EDITOR FOR BEN AFFLECK AND MANY OTHER DIRECTORS to [try] that, but I was naïve." That bold move soon connected him with Kathy Virkler ("Heat"), who "was an amazing first assistant and taught me every thing she knew about assisting." S h e r e c o m m e n d e d h i m t o To m F i n a n ("Platoon"), who was friends with Nancy Frazen, the assistant editor on "The Break- fast Club" (1985), which is how he ended up as the apprentice film editor on the John Hughes classic. Goldenberg's career gained even more