[2] National Velvet was one of thirteen films that Kern edited with director Clarence Brown.
He also made seven films with director W. S. Van Dyke, including three of the Thin Man series.
Kern was nominated for the Academy Award for David Copperfield (1935), which was directed by George Cukor.
His brother, Hal C. Kern, was also a film editor.
As of 2017, they are the only instance of two brothers both winning an Academy Award for Best Editing.