"I've always believed that the role of an editor is to find the film's natural pace, the one instilled by its director during the filming, rather than trying to create one."
— Werner Nold from an NFB biographical note.

Werner Nold studied in Switzerland, receiving a Master's degree in photography in 1954. The following year, he moved to Quebec, where he immediately found a job as a cameraman/photographer with the Quebec Government's Cine-Photo Department. He also learned sound recording and directing but it was when he tried picture editing that he found his true vocation.

Nold joined the NFB as a picture editor in 1961, initially working in French Versions. He was offered the chance to complete the editing of Manger, a documentary short by Louis Portugais, and was subsequently asked to edit Gilles Carle's first film, One Sunday in Canada (Dimanche d'Amérique). After a few other shorts, he edited The Moontrap (Pour la suite du monde), the feature-length direct-cinema masterpiece co-directed by Pierre Perrault, Marcel Carrière and Michel Brault. 

Nold edited Carle's The Merry World of Léopold Z (La Vie heureuse de Léopold Z) (1965), one of the first dramatic features produced by the NFB. His next project was Jean-Claude Labrecque's 60 cycles, a documentary about a long-distance bicycle race, in which editing played a key role. Throughout the rest of his career at the NFB, Nold would continue to alternate between drama and documentary.

Starting in 1971, Nold edited several dramatic features, including IXE-13 and La Gammick by Jacques Godbout, Once Upon a Hunt (Le Temps d'une chasse) by Francis Mankiewicz and Ti-Mine, Bernie pis la gang... by Marcel Carrière. He was also in charge of editing the official film of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Games of the XXI Olympiad (Jeux de la XXIe Olympiade), a mammoth undertaking involving a team of four editors who had to reduce more than 200 hours of film footage to 2 hours. The resulting cinematic tribute to these world-class athletes attests Nold's exceptional talent as an editor. The film was warmly received when it was released in 1977 and, that same year, Nold was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Medal.

In 1980, he worked on Gui Daò - On the Way, a series of three documentaries on contemporary life in China directed by Georges Dufaux. To edit the films in their original language (Chinese), Nold invented a technique whereby he used a French translation of the soundtrack and interlocked the tape recorder with the editing table.

Next he edited Zea, an experimental short by brothers André and Jean-Jacques Leduc. Although he continued to work primarily in documentary and drama, in 1987 he had his first experience editing animation with Co Hoedeman's Charles et Francois, soon followed by Martin Barry's Juke-Bar and Jean-Jacques Leduc's Mirrors of Time (Les Miroirs du temps).

Werner Nold left the NFB in 1997 to devote himself to teaching. He also edited a number of animated films, including Overdose by C. Cloutier, Enlève le rouge et le bleu by S. Sinnott and Taa Tam by A. Leduc.
 
Nold occasionally tried his hand at directing, first with Préambule in 1969 and much later in compilation film such as Cinéma, cinéma, co-directed with Gilles Carle in 1985. In 1989, he was asked to edit Quebec's contribution to the Cités-Cinés exhibition, entitled Surtout Montréal.

Nold is well known in the film industry and in educational circles in both Canada and the United States, where he taught on several occasions. He is very generous with his time and is involved in numerous committees and film events.

In 1985, Werner Nold was appointed to the Order of Canada. He was the recipient of the Prix Albert-Tessier in 2010.