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Works mainly as editor to Martin Scorsese, who tried to convince her to work for him for years. She was unable to work in Hollywood, however, because she couldn't get into the union. When Scorcese called to ask her to work on Raging Bull (1980), she again demurred because of lack of union membership. However, she believes that Al Pacino got her into the union. To this day, she does not know what influence was used to gain her union membership. Her father worked for an oil company, so she was born in Algeria, but grew up in Aruba. She did not live in the United States until her teens. Honorary doctor of the School of Motion Picture, Television and Production Design in Helsinki, Finland. Went to Cornell University where she majored in in political science and the Russian language. Describes her marriage to Michael Powell as a "blissfully happy union". Besides being working partners, she and Martin Scorsese are also personal friends. All of her editing credits, except two, for feature films and documentaries have been directed by Martin Scorsese. She has won all three of her Oscars as well for editing Scorsese pictures. The exceptions are the music documentary called Woodstock and feature Grace of My Heart. She worked with Scorsese on both of these he was an editor for Woodstock and producer for the Grace of my Heart. Stated on Turner Classic Movies that her name is pronounced "SKoonmaker" (not SHoonmaker). November 2007: Made an honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University.