Walker started as a Sound Editor, coaxing animal impersonator
Percy Edwards out of retirement to provide gorilla noises for
Philip Saville's series
First Born (1988), his first collaboration with composer
Hans Zimmer. After his first forays as a Film Editor, cutting classical music documentaries for the BBC, Walker broke into editing drama with
Julian Farino's
Out of the Blue and comedy with two series of
David Renwick's
Jonathan Creek. Walker has had two notable partnerships with major directors:
Steve McQueen and
Denis Villeneuve. His first collaboration with McQueen,
Hunger (2008), was a portrayal of the IRA hunger strikes at
Long Kesh starring
Michael Fassbender as
Bobby Sands. It won the
Caméra d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival. Joining again the team of McQueen, Fassbender and cinematographer
Sean Bobbitt, Walker cut
Shame (2011). This told the story of a successful Manhattanite navigating the terrain of sexual obsession on a path towards self-destruction. Their third collaboration was
12 Years a Slave (2013), the true story of
Solomon Northup, a free man kidnapped and sold into slavery, set in 1840s Louisiana. It stars
Chiwetel Ejiofor,
Brad Pitt,
Michael Fassbender,
Lupita Nyong'o,
Sarah Paulson,
Paul Dano, and
Paul Giamatti.
12 Years a Slave (2013) won three
Academy Awards:
Best Picture,
Best Supporting Actress for Nyong'o, and
Best Adapted Screenplay for
John Ridley. In her acceptance speech, Nyong'o paid tribute to Walker, describing him as "the invisible performer in the editing room". The film was awarded the
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and the
British Academy of Film and Television Arts recognized it with the
Best Film and
Best Actor for Ejiofor. Walker's partnership with
Denis Villeneuve has comprised five feature films. Their first,
Sicario, is a 2015 American
crime-
thriller drama film starring
Benicio del Toro and
Josh Brolin in which an idealistic FBI agent
Emily Blunt is enlisted in a secret CIA op to bring down the head of a brutal Mexican drug cartel.
Arrival is a 2016 American
psychological science fiction film based on the 1998 short story "
Story of Your Life" by
Ted Chiang starring
Amy Adams,
Jeremy Renner, and
Forest Whitaker. Villeneuve said of the movie's creation, "Each film has its hero. For this one, the editor Joe Walker is mine. Arrival was by far the hardest film to edit. Christ, we worked hard!". Their third collaboration is
Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to
Blade Runner (1982). They next partnered on
Dune (2021), based on
Frank Herbert novel of the same name. A fifth collaboration
Dune: Part Two, was released on 1 March 2024. Walker has talked about time being the editor's "greatest superpower". His films with McQueen and Villeneuve showcase experiments with cross-cutting, flashback structures and time loops. McQueen paid tribute to Walker's ability to find the rhythm of a film, saying: "A great film editor is attuned to the silences. They can be just as valuable as the words. It's all about timing. And that's what he has – Joe has time." In 2010, Walker cut the documentary-feature
Life in a Day for Academy Award-winning director
Kevin Macdonald and producer
Ridley Scott. It was filmed by YouTube users around the world on a single day in July 2010 and is distilled from the 4,500 hours of footage submitted. The movie premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival in January 2011. Walker has edited many British Indie features such as
The Escapist (2008) written and directed by
Rupert Wyatt;
Harry Brown (2009), starring
Michael Caine as a modern-day vigilante; and
Brighton Rock (2010), a reworking of the
Graham Greene classic that set the action against a backdrop of the Mod and Rocker riots of 1964. Walker has cut many British TV programs:
Jimmy McGovern's
The Lakes;
Eroica for the BBC;
ITV blockbuster
Doctor Zhivago starring
Sam Neill and
Keira Knightley;
Sword of Honour for
Channel 4, starring
Daniel Craig; ''
The Devil's Whore, for director Marc Munden and Tommy Tiernan'' for director
Richard Ayoade. In addition to editing, Walker's music has been played by the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, live in
Trafalgar Square. He wrote the score for the
BBC/
HBO drama
Dirty War. In January 2019, Joe was awarded an honorary doctorate by his alma mater
University of York. == Filmography ==