Most people think of storytelling as something you say in words. Ana-Lauryn Adderley listens for the sounds. It’s a method that has skyrocketed the Nassau born-and-raised Adderley to the top of the fiercely competitive creative film editing industry in L.A.
At just 25, she has been lauded for excellence, winning two of the trade’s top awards, back-to-back Clios in 2022 and 2023, and a Best Editor Award at the Star Film Awards in March. No other Bahamian has achieved comparable status and had it not been for Adderley’s sister, BreAnne Adderley, wanting Bahamians to know about it, Ana- Lauryn’s creative work and rise to industry fame in Hollywood and Thailand might have gone unnoticed.
“I just want the world to know how special my sister is, how amazing,” says BreAnne, a real estate marketing director. “Two Clios at 25, some people work in the industry for a lifetime and never earn one.
Founded in 1959, The Clios celebrate global creative excellence and innovation in advertising and design, and each year awards top creatives and marketers whose work personifies brilliance in each nominee’s respective field.
Adderley received the bronze award in 2022 for the campaign promo for the HBO Max series “Peacemaker” and a gold award in 2023 for the teaser trailer of the Netflix feature-film “Hunger”.
What makes the award especially noteworthy is that more than 80 per cent of submissions are eliminated within the first two rounds of judging, and only a small percentage of entries receives a Clio award, with even fewer ever earning a Gold Clio. Thus, for Adderley, winning both awards meant the world, but also came as a shock.
“I was working at HBO at the time, and ‘Peacemaker’ was one of the first projects that I had gotten that was a big show and part of a bigger campaign. It was this new show, starring John Cena in the DC Universe, and I know the superhero thing is a big deal. So, I thought, wow, this is a really big piece of a puzzle I’ll be a part of,” she says.
“When I found out that I won the bronze award, I was in L.A., and it had been about a year since I had finished the campaign promo for ‘Peacemaker’, and I was just going onto a new job. So, I started this job with this nomination, and everyone was filled with so much excitement, trying to figure out what was happening.”
The following year, Adderley was nominated again, only this time coming out on top with her first-ever Gold Clio for a teaser trailer that she says was made just “for fun”.
“I am so proud of the ‘Hunger’ project because it started off as my creative director telling me I can just cut something on the side for fun, and that if it’s good, we can send it to Netflix,” says Adderley.
She explains that cutting something – which means to extract scenes from a film to create a trailer or promotional video – that isn’t a part of a film’s brief can still be submitted to a studio and left up to the executives to decide if they want to use it or not. Fortunately, for Adderley, they did.
“Netflix said they wanted to use my teaser as a part of their marketing campaign because at first, it was only a trailer they wanted. Then they decided to add my teaser to their campaign. So, I felt really honoured that I cut something that good.”
Adderley, who is self-taught, says it was the art of storytelling hidden within the editorial process that drew her to pursue a career in film editing rather than other roles in the industry — directing, producing and acting. And that the idea to pursue this lane dawned on her in college when she noticed editing is a completely different process than shooting and being on set.
“Editing was always such a natural part of the filmmaking process for me, but it was sort of a surprise that I fell so in love with it,” she says.
“When I’d shoot something and edit it afterwards, I realised that I can really do this. Then, somewhere along the line, I discovered that storytelling is truly in the edit.
You can have the best shots, you can have the best footage in the world, but if the edit isn’t great, the story is ruined.”
And while the Savannah College of Art and Design graduate recognises that a film’s editor may not always have the final say on what makes the cut and what doesn’t, she was given full creative control over the “Hunger” teaser, whose visual and sound effects perfectly exemplify the intensity between a street-food cook who pushes herself past her limits while working under a ruthless chef.
“I broke down the movie, and watched everything from start to finish, made my markers to see what I’d like, what lines of dialogue I’d like, and I knew the first thing I wanted to do was make something that felt like you’re chopping really quickly and the danger that comes with chopping vegetables with a knife, especially if you get distracted. I just had to figure out how I was going to do that,” Adderley explains.
She adds that the music department at her current place of employment sent her a list of music cues to choose from.
That’s where the importance of sound comes in. The threat of the steel kitchen knife chopping against a backdrop of the right music made the difference between ordinary and unforgettable.
“I always go for something I feel like I’ve never heard before, or something that just hits the ear in a different way and feels unique. So, when I heard the left- right, left-right like a ping-pong match, I knew it was perfect,” she says.
“I laid that down on the timeline, then I just started pulling in the shots that Ireally liked. And it was already such a beautiful movie visually that it wasn’t hard to choose nice shots, which was perfect because sometimes you don’t get that. I knew I wanted to play around with jumping back and forth in between shots because I just like that style of editing, and I didn’t want it to be dialogue heavy. I just wanted it to be understood visually.”
Adderley joked that by now, she should know more of the language as “Hunger” is not her first Thai project. However, no matter how many international projects she’s worked on, the St. Andrews International School alumna says working with Bahamian filmmakers is the “real goal”.
Earlier this year, Adderley met up with fellow Bahamian filmmaker and playwright Kerel Pinder, chairman of the Star Film Institute, whom she met through Kyle Ferguson, owner of Jiggy Productions. Pinder informed her that a production was in desperate need of an editor after the original editor was no longer available. This connection led Adderley to win the “Best Editor” award at the Star Film Awards held in March.
“‘In Sickness and in Death’ was such a fun project to work on. I had about two to three weeks to get through all the footage and it was a lot of footage to go through. But I loved working with the team, and they understood I was coming in on the tail end, so it made everything better,” she says.
“Hopefully, I can work with more Bahamians. I’m still reaching out to people and trying to connect to see what I can do. So, I’m hoping that more things come about over the next few months.”
Adderley says she misses home every day, despite having been living abroad for the past seven years. And that whenever she does visit, she tries to take a little piece of home back with her.
“My sister was just here in March for her birthday, so that was nice. I tried to convince her to move here to be with me because I miss my family a lot and they need to visit me more often,” she says. “But any time I go home, I try to bring back conch, snappers, anything that I can fit into my suitcase.”
Adderley lives with a roommate as well as with her cat, Peaches, whom she says is a “Godsend”.
“She’s my baby; she’s my ride or die,” says Adderley. “I work from home, so if I’m up late, she’ll be up late with me, supporting me, so it doesn’t feel as lonely.”
In addition to taking care of her pet, Adderley says she enjoys weightlifting and improving her overall fitness, as well as the state of euphoria and controlled breathing that comes with long-distance running.
Regarding upcoming projects, Adderley’s latest project in L.A. was creating the trailer for the 2025 documentary “TIME II: Unfinished Business”, which tells a family’s story of prison reform and social justice in America. And that she is in the pre-production phase for a few documentaries in The Bahamas that are awaiting funding.
As for advice she may have for Bahamians wanting to pursue a career in filmmaking, whether at home or abroad, Adderley says to stay true to who you are.
“Don’t give up on your dream. It’s not something we see often in The Bahamas, people in that film and TV space, but there are so many creatives back home who are doing big things,” she says.
“Connecting with like-minded people is also so important because the way the industry is now, you don’t necessarily have to leave home. We have social media, we have YouTube, and if you can get your friends together, create something that’s really good – just five minutes of really good content – you can put it out there; submit it to festivals. All of this you can do from home.”
She says the same goes for Bahamians looking to move to the U.S. “Reaching out to people. I DM (direct message) people on Instagram for advice and find a whole list of trailer houses and just reach out. But I know many may not do that because it’s difficult when people don’t get back to you.
“But stay true to who you are. As cliché as it sounds, being authentic to who I am as a person, as an artist, has gotten me to this place. I’ve always leaned into my instincts because I feel like if I like a project, then someone else will, too, and I have to believe that. Staying true to who you are and your artistry is key.”
As for the sister who wanted the world to know more about who her “amazing” sibling was, missing her takes a back seat to wanting to see her continue to create, to thrive, to contribute to the world of film and art.
“I know she has to stay abroad for now, but one of these days she’ll be part of transforming the film industry here to create the same opportunities for Bahamian creatives who share her same passion.”
The post Bahamian film editor Ana-Lauryn Adderley scores Gold, Bronze CLIOs appeared first on ZNS BAHAMAS.
