By Debra Kaufman
At the 69th Creative Emmy awards, editors Bret Granato, Maya Mumma and Ben Sozanski won the award for Outstanding Picture Editing Nonfiction for ESPN Films' OJ: Made in America. HPA Newsline had a chance to speak with Granato about the experience of cutting the seven hour-and-47 minute documentary series, which also won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards.
If you thought that nothing new could be wrung out of the 1994 OJ Simpson saga, the ESPN documentary proved you - and everyone else - wrong. But that was Granato's mindset when director Ezra Edelman first contacted him. The topic had been covered so thoroughly, explains Granato, who had worked with Edelman on an ESPN's Requiem for the Big East. I couldn't imagine what he wanted to do with it. Edelman then explained his plan: a dual narrative that would follow the history of Los Angeles and the LAPD and the history of the African-American community in Los Angeles and OJ's own history, two threads that would weave in and out, and crash together after the murders.
From the beginning, says Granato, he knew the challenge would be to keep the audience engaged in this atypical method of storytelling. We didn't know if people would see the correlation of feel lost, he says. We didn't know if people would go for the ride. It was a tricky proposition.
When Granato and Mumma (initially the only two editors on the project) started working, Edelman and his team had already completed 50 to 60 percent of the interviews. Edelman's process is also to write a lengthy document - up to 60 pages - that tells a conversational, almost novelistic story, populated with quotes and the people he hopes to interview. It's an aspirational document, says Granato, who says the editors use the document as a guide.
The deadline was another challenge. The series, initially slated at six hours, had to meet the deadline for the Sundance Film Festival (where it debuted) in less than a year, a brutal pace for so much material. That's when Sozanski came aboard, and the episodes were divvied up: Mumma would handle episodes 1 and 2, the so-called pre-murder sections, Granato would focus on the trial, in episodes 3 and 4, and Sozanski would edit the post-verdict episode 5. They stayed within those parameters, says Granato, although Sozanski cut the opening of episode 1 and he cut the Buffalo Bill section in the same episode. We all touched that first episode, says Granato, who adds the Sozanski also worked on the part of the murders.
Granato was perfectly suited to cut the OJ trial for a rather coincidental reason. He was in college during the original trial and was obsessed with it. I listened to all of it while I was jogging, he says. I was gripped, like the country was, and was fascinated by the twists and turns. Years later, he wrote off that obsession as a wasted year - which it might have been had he not found himself editing it for an award-winning documentary. I was very familiar with the trial, he notes wryly.
While the editors were cutting at the Post Factory in New York (all of them on Avids), producers Caroline Waterlow, Tamara Rosenberg and Nina Krstic worked out of an office in Brooklyn; Krstic handled archival footage, which was so crucial to the series. Associate producer Ryan Dilts and assistant editor John Fisher handled the immense task of inputting and key-wording about 800 hours of footage, including over 70 interviews, so the editors could easily find what they were looking for.
Another major challenge was when Edelman and the three editors got together to see the big picture of all the episodes together. Ezra wanted to see the arc of the whole thing, says Granato. So we'd spend ten hours going through the entire series together. It would take an entire day to see what was working and what wasn't, and it was physically punishing to do that. Each editor left the beginnings and endings of their episodes loose, to allow more flexibility for connecting with the material on either side. It never ends up being structured per the original idea, says Granato. The dynamic changes depending on the interviews, and you go back and tighten and make it more focused.
The team did finish the series in time for its Sundance Film Festival debut. Granato looks back and says that none of them knew just how long the series would be - or how big it would hit. We just started building and kept moving the needle forward, he says, noting that the ESPN executives were happy with the show at its longer length. ESPN was so supportive and interested in what we were doing, and they gave us the freedom to tell the story the way we thought it should be told.
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
By Debra Kaufman
