Meet Aashish D’Mello, Indian editor who worked on several Oscar-winning films Everything Everywhere All At Once

Everything Everywhere All At Once was the biggest winner of the recent 95th Academy Awards, taking home seven Oscar statuettes for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress in a Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing out of the eleven nominations it had received.

Many don’t know that a Mumbai-born editor named Aashish D’Mello was one of two assistant editors who worked on the film directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Indian Aashish D’Mello and Chinese Zekun Mao assisted American editor Paul Rogers, who won the Best Editing award.

Who is Aashish D’Mello?

Aashish, 30, was born to Bombay High Court barrister Denzil D’Mello and Ruth D’Mello. His parents live near the iconic Mehboob Studios in Bandra. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mass media from St. Xaviers College in 2013, then worked as an assistant director at Apocalypso Filmworks for two years, where he worked on several commercials and even Mardaani, backed by Yash Raj Films in 2014 and led by Rani Mukerji.

For his graduate studies, Aashish moved to pursue editing at the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles. Since then, he has worked there in the film and television industry. Aashish has worked on several short films, which have screened at several international film festivals around the world.

How did Aashish get the chance to work on Everything Everywhere All At Once?

Aashish thanks Zekun Mao for having the opportunity to work in the multiple Oscar-winning film. Sharing the same in his personal essay published in Hindustan Times, he wrote, “I got the job on the film Everything Everywhere, All at Once thanks to the film’s other assistant editor – Zekun Mao. We all had the two attended AFI and worked on other projects together. The experience of being part of the editing team for this film was as crazy as it sounds.”

Aashish D’Mello at the Oscars

“Because the film was nominated for Best Editing, we were able to attend the Oscars as Paul’s guests. It was a surreal night. As we walked down the hall of the Dolby Theater, I thought of how lucky I was,” Aashish wrote in her essay. He adds that seeing Paul win the Best Editing Oscar was the most memorable moment of the special night. “We knew we were working on something unique, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted how big of a phenomenon the film would become. It makes all the hard work worthwhile,” Aashish concludes.

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