Biography

Aaron Wickenden

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Aaron Wickenden is a filmmaker with two decades of editing experience, whose work includes the acclaimed films "Won't You be My Neighbor?", "Feels Good Man", "Roadrunner", "Hail Satan?" and "Finding Vivian Maier". He has been nominated twice for the Best Edited documentary ACE Eddie award (2015 and 2019), twice for the Emmy for Outstanding Editing (2013 and 2015) and recently won his first Emmy for Outstanding Research (2021). To date he has edited seven films that have premiered at Sundance. He is an active member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Documentary Branch - 2017 - present) and American Cinema Editors (2014 - present).

Wickenden received a BFA degree in Photography from the University of Arizona where he studied with the photographer Ken Shorr (see David Sedaris' New Yorker essay "The IHOP Years") and took classes from Mary Ellen Mark, and Lisette Model's protege Larry Fink. In 1999 he interned with both Annie Leibovitz and Richard Avedon. This extensive background in photography was crucial in helping to craft "Finding Vivian Maier", which was nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar.
- IMDb mini biography by: Aaron Wickenden

Wickenden performed with Scottsdale's Oxymoron'Z improv troupe from 1995-96.
At the 2016 Cinema Eye Honors, Wickenden and Albert Maysles were the only two filmmakers to be nominated for their work on two separate films. For Maysles it was "Iris" and "In Transit" and for Wickenden it was for "Best of Enemies" and "Almost There".
In 2014 Wickenden was chosen as one of the top 10 filmmakers working in Chicago by New City who went on to call him "an unassuming but essential talent... [with] a knack for structure and for rhythms". He was again honored by New City in 2016 who chose him as one of the top 5 filmmakers working from Chicago, and then again in 2018 when New City ranked him as the number two filmmaker working in Chicago, after Wickenden's mentor Steve James.
Wickenden was mentored by acclaimed director Steve James for nearly a decade (2002 - 2011). This relationship began via an internship at Chicago's Kartemquin Films, progressed as Wickenden assisted on "Reel Paradise", post supervised "The War Tapes" and would culminate in Wickenden editing two films with James.
As of 2022, he has contributed with the editing of three films that were nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature: "The Interrupters" (2011), "Best of Enemies" (2015) and "Won't You be My Neighbor?" (2019). Of those, "The Interrupters" and "Won't You be My Neighbor?" were winners in the category.

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