Originally from Italy, Cecilia de Lena is a London based editor, and she's recently graduated from the National Film and Television school in London. She completed a BA with Hons from the Met Film School 3 years ago, obtaining a specialisation in film Editing and Screenwriting.

 

   Cecilia has been working across different genres: fiction, documentary, music videos and commercials. Most recently, some of her short films have been selected at festivals all over Europe, like her BA graduating project, "Forget me not", which has been selected for the LA Cinefest, MCIFA Awards, the Short Film Corner of Cannes and won "Best Original Story" at the Top Shorts festival for the March 2018 edition and "Best Short Film" at the ARFF for the October 2018 selection. Before starting her Ma at the NFTS, she worked on "Brexit", a 4 mins short film about the struggle in the relationship between a European guy and an English girl during Brexit, and "Fomo", a Crypto obsessed young police man must fight his fear of missing out as he waits before opening a position that would hopefully change is life in collaboration with the Queen Mab Production in late 2018.

 

   During her course at the NFTS, she has worked across a wide range of genres -  factual, drama, commercials, short film formats and natural scientific pieces like “Lifespan”, which has been selected as a finalist at LabMeCrazy! Science Film Festival, as semi-finalist at Vienna Film Festival and in the official selection of InScience Film Festival in 2020.

 

   Characters' driven stories are what thrives Cecilia the most, and she always tries to combine new and not expected elements in the assets of a film editor to elevate the power of the film she's cutting. Cecilia likes to cut to give the maximum emotional impact and substance to the story, paying attention to, as well, how the pace and rhythm contribute to the overall construction of the edit.

 

   She strongly believes the skills of a good editor are acquired over time and, above all, with experience. Film by film, scene by scene, those illustrate the instinctive choices of a cut. And, throughout all her experience at the NFTS, her projects gave her the chance to experiment with all these approaches, techniques and styles to find her own. She knows her tools and trusts the process and the working and human-related relationships she created with her directors and every single member of the crew, which enable us, together, to create the best possible film, given the weapons at our disposal.