Bobbie O’Steen is a New York-based writer who has been immersed in the world of film editing all her life.

She first developed a love for movies watching her father, film editor Richard C. Meyer (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid).  After earning a degree in anthropology at Stanford University, she went on to work as a story editor and film editor (Straight Time, Tess). Following an Emmy® nomination in editing for the television movie Best Little Girl in the World, she began to write about the invisible art.

Bobbie first wrote about film with her late husband and colleague, Sam O’Steen, the legendary Oscar-nominated film editor in Cut To The Chase: 45 Years of Editing America’s Favorite Movies (2002), filled with candid stories from the cutting room and behind the scenes on some of the most influential movies in motion picture history.  Sam O’Steen was one of Hollywood’s most distinguished film editors who worked with directors Mike Nichols, Roman Polanski and many others during what is now referred to as the “Golden Age.”

In her latest book published in 2009, The Invisible Cut:  How Editors Make Movie Magic, Bobbie uses frame grabs of actual cuts from classic movie scenes (Body Heat, Twelve Angry Men, Rear Window and The French Connection) to get deep inside the mind of the film editor and explain how the mysterious art is actually done.

In addition to moderating EditFest panels on both coasts, O’Steen is a regular contributor to film periodicals and frequent guest on radio and podcasts about the  art of editing. In 2010, she created a new series of public events that elucidates the editor’s work to film going audiences at venues like 92YTribeca and UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theater where she conducts in-depth discussion with esteemed film editors and screens award-winning movies.

“Editing is not only an under-appreciated art, it is in great need of explanation,” says Bobbie O’Steen, who passionately believes in elevating the role and contributions of the editor to the greatest extent possible. She continues to teach, write and speak about editing, forever on a mission to create a deeper understanding of the invisible art for filmmakers, peers and the audience.