Joi McMillon is an American film editor. In 2003, she graduated from Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts. McMillon is known for her work on the Academy Award-winning film Moonlight (2016), and If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), both winning several respective accolades.

Career

McMillon initially planned to be a journalist, but a high school field trip to Universal Studios introduced her to the craft of editing and inspired her to apply to film school.^[1] She attended Florida State University College of Motion Picture Arts, graduating in 2003.^[2]

Joi McMillon's first job on an editorial team was as a night assistant editor on “The Surreal Life,” Season 3 with Flavor Flav and Brigitte Nielsen. Her first time cutting footage together was a teaser for “Beauty and the Geek.”

In 2017, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Film Editing (shared with Nat Sanders) at the 89th Academy Awards. McMillon is the first black woman to be nominated for an Oscar for film editing.^[3][4][5] Barry Jenkins said of her nomination in 2017: "I respect her work. It makes me very proud of the work she did to see that I'm not the only one. Clearly all these folks in the academy respected the work she did as well."^[6] McMillon also won (with Nat Sanders) Best Film Editing for her work on Moonlight at the 2017 Spirit Awards.^[7]

Since then, she has edited numerous films and a television series. In 2018, she collaborated with Nat Sanders again on the editing of If Beale Street Could Talk. In 2020, McMillon cut together Zola (Film) with filmmaker Janicza Bravo. Zola went on to win 2022 Winner Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing. In 2021, Joi led the editorial department on The Underground Railroad (miniseries), a short series adapted from Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel for Amazon Studios.

Filmography

Editor

• Blue Boy (Short, 2009)
• Shades of Gray (Short, 2009)
• Shoot the Moon (Short, 2009)
• Chlorophyl (Short, 2011)
• The Other Side of Silence (Documentary, 2012)
• The Radio Gamers (Short, 2013)
• Off-Season (Short, 2013)
• SMILF (Short, 2015)
• Anne & Jake (TV series) (7 episodes, 2015)
• Girls (TV series) (1 episode, 2016)
• Man Rots from the Head (Short, 2016)
• Moonlight (2016)
• Lemon (2017)
• Hum (Short) (2017)
• American Woman (2018)
• If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
• Zola (2020)
• The Underground Railroad (TV series) (2021)

Editorial department

Other credits

• Little Brown Boy (2003) (Short)
• My Josephine (2003) (Short)
• Straw Hat (2004) (Producer, Assistant Director)
• Medicine for Melancholy (2008) (special thanks)
• Sausage Party (2016) (special thanks)

Accolades