Pietro Scalia

Biography

Pietro Scalia (born March 17, 1960) is an Italian-born film editor whose career has unfolded mainly in Hollywood. He is best known for his long association with Oliver Stone and Ridley Scott and has won two Academy Awards for Best Film Editing.

Scalia was born in Sicily but grew up in Switzerland, where he attended German-speaking schools until high school. He then moved to the United States for university, studying first at the University at Albany and later at UCLA, where he completed a Master of Fine Arts in 1985. After making several short films and a thesis film, he returned to Europe hoping to direct, but soon came back to Los Angeles to work as an editor. He started as an assistant on Andrei Konchalovsky's Shy People and then joined Oliver Stone's team, working on Wall Street, Talk Radio and Born on the Fourth of July. After five years with Stone, he was given his first full editing credit on JFK, which earned him an Oscar shared with Joe Hutshing. He later worked with Bernardo Bertolucci, Sam Raimi and Ridley Scott, returning to Scott for films such as Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, American Gangster and Robin Hood. In recent years he has also cut large-scale productions such as The Amazing Spider-Man and The Martian.

His work is associated with a classical, rhythmic style suited to big productions that still needs to hold dramatic weight. He remains active, with recent credits in the Star Wars and Marvel franchises.

Key films

• JFK (1991): Scalia's first full edit, earning his first Oscar.
• Black Hawk Down (2001): his second Oscar, on Ridley Scott's war film.
• Good Will Hunting (1997): Oscar-nominated work on Gus Van Sant's drama.
• Gladiator (2000): Oscar-nominated editing on one of Ridley Scott's epics.
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005): a large-scale production directed by Rob Marshall.
• The Martian (2015): Ridley Scott's science fiction film.