Hank Corwin, the legendary editor and founder of the postproduction company Lost Planet, has been named to receive the AICP Post Impact Award. Corwin will be presented with this honor at a ceremony in New York on June 8 during AICP Week.
The Post Impact Award is the successor to the AICP Post Hall of Fame honor, which originated with AICE, the postproduction trade association that merged with AICP in 2018. It recognizes outstanding achievements by individuals in the field of postproduction. It will be presented to artists and individuals who’ve made contributions of major artistic or cultural significance to commercial advertising, and will be bestowed at the discretion of the Posts Awards Executive Committee.
“I’m honored to receive the AICP Post Impact Award,” Corwin said. “I got my start editing commercials, and the lessons I learned as an editor have served me well throughout my career. I’d like to express my deep appreciation for my fellow editors, and big respect for the assistants who’ve worked with me throughout the years. Without them none of this would have been possible. Thank you so much to the Lost Planet producers and staff, and thank you as well to the lovely and not so lovely agency people who jeopardized their careers by letting me cut their spots. ”
“As the AICP Post Awards continues to evolve to meet the changing face of the industry, so has its Hall of Fame honor evolved to represent a new set of criteria for honoring and recognizing significant career accomplishments,” said Matt Miller, president and CEO of AICP. “It’s only fitting that an industry leader like Hank Corwin, who helped elevate the role of the editor specifically and the contributions of post production artists in general to the overall creative impact of a piece of motion content, should be our first recipient. His work has been, and continues to be, an inspiration to everyone in the post production community.”
While long admired for his work in commercials, Corwin is perhaps better known as an Academy Award-nominated editor who’s worked with such directors as Oliver Stone, Adam McKay, Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, among others.
His features career began while working on the epic “JFK” for Stone, which won the Best Film Editing Oscar, awarded to main editors Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia. Corwin went on to edit three more films for the director: “Natural Born Killers,” “Nixon” and “U Turn.” Working alongside other editors, he worked with Malick on “The New World,” “The Tree of Life” and “Song to Song.” More recently, he’s partnered with director Adam McKay on “The Big Short” and “Vice.” During this time, Lost Planet has continued to thrive as a commercial postproduction boutique, working for a range of top ad agencies and brands.
Jen Dean, chairperson of the 2023 AICP Post Awards and an editor at Cut+Run, worked for Lost Planet for a dozen years and assisted Corwin before becoming a full editor herself. As AICP Post Awards chairperson, she feels Corwin is uniquely positioned to be the very first Post Impact Award recipient. “Hank came up as an assistant under editor Jerry Bender, who was the very first person inducted into the AICP Hall of Fame, so this feels like it’s going full circle,” she noted.
Corwin set a tone at Lost Planet, Dean explained, that demanded excellence. “Hank created an atmosphere in which you had to be open to experimenting, trying things new and just pushing yourself–he empowered people that way,” she recalled. “It was a great energy, the vibe we had there, and it came from the top.”
“Many of the people who’ve worked for Hank and for Lost Planet have gone on to have amazing careers, whether they’ve edited films or started their own postproduction companies,” Dean continued. “In this respect, Hank has truly had an impact. And his influence on how postproduction artists approach their work has stretched beyond commercials, to include people working on everything from films to TV series to music videos.”
The transition from the Hall of Fame to the Post Impact Award aims to change the scope of how achievement in the postproduction industry is both measured and recognized, Dean noted. “This isn’t meant to celebrate someone who’s at or near the end of their careers,” she said, pointing out that many people working in film are doing significant work well into their senior years. “We felt this was something that needed to change. Now we’re celebrating individuals who’ve made a huge impact on the post industry in commercials, and that means there are many more people who might be deserving of this award.”
“This new honor reflects that more people are open to the idea that there’s a community of people that go into the success of both a singular project and in the creation and furthering of a craft itself,” added Yvette Cobarrubias, managing partner and EP at Cosmo Street, a past chairperson of the AICP Post Awards and a member of the AICP Post Awards Executive Committee. “I think society in general is broadening our scope of what talent looks like, what influences an industry, and the many ways success can be defined. Honoring incredible people and their accomplishments is always going to be an imperative. This redefinition into the Post Impact Award opens us up to the next level.”
