Geof Bartz, a renowned film editor, spent 25 years as the Supervising Editor for HBO Documentary Films, from 1998 to 2023.
Bartz's career in film editing began as an assistant editor on the 1969 CBS special "Simon and Garfunkel: Songs of America". He went on to edit or supervise the editing of over 100 non-fiction films, including the iconic sports documentary "Pumping Iron".
In addition to his work on documentary films, Bartz co-produced and supervised the editing of NBC's Emmy-winning series "Lifeline" (1979) and co-produced and edited the 20th Century Fox feature "Stripper" (1984).
Throughout his career, Bartz has been recognized for his exceptional work, having edited nine films that have been nominated for Academy Awards. In 2000 and 2001, he cut two short documentaries, "King Gimp" and "Big Mama", which won back-to-back Oscars. Then, in 2015 and 2016, "Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1" and "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" also won consecutive Academy Awards.
Bartz has been nominated for ten Emmys and has won four, as well as receiving three Peabody and two Columbia-Dupont Awards for his work.
In 2017, Geof Bartz was admitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He is also a long-time member of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) and the Motion Picture Editors Guild.
Bartz has taught "Introduction to Film Editing" at the Columbia University School of the Arts for 20 years, from 1978 to 1998.
Interviews with Bartz can be found in "The Art of the Documentary" by Megan Cunningham and in "First Cut: Conversations with Film Editors" by Gabriella Oldham.
Bartz grew up on Detroit's East Side and graduated from the University of Notre Dame (1966, BA) and Columbia University (1969, MFA Film). He lives on Manhattan's Upper West Side with his wife, Lynn Sullivan. Their daughter, Juliet Bartz, graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and is the Director of Documentary Development at AXIOS.
