Best Production Design: Ranking Every Oscar Nominee

Table Of Content

• Production design by Rick Carter; set decoration by Karen O’Hara
• Academy Award for Best Production Design — Winners Ranked
• Cillian Murphy dedicates best actor win to 'peacemakers everywhere'
• Best Production Design: Ranking Every Oscar Nominee
• Jeff Probst Announces ‘Survivor 50’ Will Be All Returning Players
• 'Oppenheimer' wins best picture

Pay attention to color next time you watch The Aviator – you may notice subliminal tones that brilliantly aid the mood. Jules Verne’s 1870 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea captivated readers for generations before it received a proper movie adaptation in 1954. Richard Fleischer’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea faced a difficult challenge in making an adaptation that would appease all of those who had read Verne’s novel, but with the help of art director John Meehan and set decorator Emile Kuri, he pulled it off. Cedric Gibbons won more Academy Awards for Best Production Design than any other production designer in history. With a voluminous pixie styled by hair pro Takesha Sturdivant-Drew using ghd tools.

Production design by Rick Carter; set decoration by Karen O’Hara

It’s Max’s favorite architectural period, which covers the opulence of palaces to the real misery of hovels, along with a few burning buildings, at sea with ships, and the massive military engagements. Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” required production designer Ruth De Jong (a first-time nominee) to combine sets with practical locations to build the desert town of Los Alamos. This was the central location of The Manhattan Projection in this historical thriller about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Best Actor nominee Cillian Murphy), the “father of the atomic bomb.” Unable to shoot in Los Alamos, they chose Ghost Ranch, a 21,000-acre retreat in Northern New Mexico. This provided a prime plateau to build the town, with impressive backdrops in every direction.

Oscar Nominations 2024: See the Full List Here - Vanity Fair

Oscar Nominations 2024: See the Full List Here.

Posted: Sun, 10 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Academy Award for Best Production Design — Winners Ranked

Of course, production designer Florencia Martin knows all about this bacchanal world. A native Angeleno—who landed an assistant job on Mad Men in 2008 and went on to create the backdrop behind Licorice Pizza and Blonde—Martin designs sets that capture a certain California moment. Among Babylon’s 120 sets is Conrad’s Spanish Mission Revival estate, gossip columnist Elinor St. John’s (Jean Smart) Pasadena castle, and the movie mogul Don Wallach’s (Jeff Garlin) mansion—a backdrop that Martin says was the biggest challenge. With 'cool girl' center-parted strands with bend styled by hair pro Mara Roszak using Rōz Santa Lucia hair oil and the L'Oreal Proffessionel Steampod and raspberry lips and glowing skin created by makeup artist Loftjet using Charlotte Tilbury's Beauty Light Wand in Pillow Talk. Get a glimpse into the minds that created the worlds in this year's most visually stunning films with our exclusive look at the 95th Oscars production design nominees.

Cillian Murphy dedicates best actor win to 'peacemakers everywhere'

We update predictions throughout awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2024 Oscar picks. ” Perhaps it will also secure wins in costume design, makeup, and potentially even a best actress for Emma Stone. Or, worst-case scenario, it could leave empty-handed and join the ranks of films like “The Turning Point” and “The Color Purple” with the most Oscar losses in history. So how much of a lift does “Babylon” get in the production design Oscar race, considering how divisive it’s been?

Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, in "Oppenheimer," said he was "overwhelmed" to have won the award. "Movies are just a little bit over 100 years old," he continued, adding, "We don't know where this incredible journey is going from here, but to know that you think that I'm a meaningful part of it, means the world to me. Thank you very much." Stone then thanked director Yorgos Lanthimos for giving her "the gift of a lifetime in Bella Baxter." She ended her speech by thanking her mom, her dad, her brother Spencer Stone, her husband Dave McCary and her daughter. Al Pacino presented the category in celebration of the 50th anniversary of "The Godfather Part II."

Jeff Probst Announces ‘Survivor 50’ Will Be All Returning Players

Production design is everything that goes into making the world of a film – sets, props and more. But despite its importance, production design is a facet of filmmaking that I think many people take for granted. We often ascribe credit to the writers, directors and stars of a picture rather than the artists working in the shadows.

There are monolithic buildings, gothic staircases, and captivating statues/gargoyles all over the place – not to mention how great the rest of the production design was too. For decades, there were rumors that the phantom stage was haunted, with some alleging that mysterious figures could be seen in the balconies. In 2014, the stage was demolished but its history remains an essential story in Hollywood production design. With an undone chignon and pinky-caramel lips via Pat McGrath Labs Matte Trance Lipstick in 1995 applied by makeup artist Mary Phillips..

This year, the nominees are a particularly formidable lineup spanning cinematic genres, time periods, and moods—from glittering underwater worlds to extravagant Gilded Age-era mansions. Below, we take a look at the five best production design nominees before the Academy Awards ceremony on March 12. In the days of cinema where CGI has replaced so many calls for locations and architectural design, we still can appreciate those in the production design and set decoration fields, especially when you have a category that is this stacked. Easily the most well rounded batch of five nominees I’ve covered thus far (yet there is still a clear winner in my eyes), the Academy’s nominees for Best Production Design are unquestionably strong this year, all for different reasons.

Oscars 2024: How to watch this year’s best picture nominees, including 'Barbie,' 'Oppenheimer' and more - NBC News

Oscars 2024: How to watch this year’s best picture nominees, including 'Barbie,' 'Oppenheimer' and more.

Posted: Mon, 04 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

“This location allowed us to create the illusion of a castle at the top of the hill surrounded by the desert landscape of undeveloped Los Angeles,” says Martin. “Through relentless location searching, I came across a stone Gothic castle built in 1926 in the California desert.” A Spanish Gothic castle, at that. Based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name, Poor Things stars Stone as Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents.

If you want to build beautifully expressive and colorful film sets like those in The Grand Budapest Hotel, check out our video below. Each of the last 14 films that have received this honor have also collected at least one more Oscar, with the last lone winner having been “Sweeney Todd.” The most overlap has occurred in Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Score, with five instances each. Any of the present production design contenders could continue the tradition, but “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Babylon,” and “Elvis” are best positioned to do so since they are each nominated in two of the three most commonly correlational categories.

Rokael prepped Kardashian's skin with the Currentbody LED Neck and Dec Perfector red light mask. Standout looks included bold red lips worn by Nicole Kidman and Tracee Ellis Ross and sultry, smoky eyes, as seen on Sofia Carson. Set decorator Adam Willis is a first-time nominee, although he also worked on the team for “Oppenheimer” as well as on an earlier film from “Poor Things'” director Yorgos Lanthimos. Nightmare Alley could have just been filled with some cold places and exteriors, but the team here went the extra mile by giving a certain sense of deteriorated otherworldliness (almost like a Tim Burton film but not as exaggerated). The fully-realized carnival environments, the finer details of the damp living quarters, and so many other elements make the film a real treat to look at and almost feel. The performance space at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, where Elvis had his seven-year residency.

But she’s not a lock to win; Damien Chazelle’s hedonistic Hollywood epic wasn’t well received, and “Elvis” was. Plus, Catherine Martin is an Academy celebrity, who previously won for “The Great Gatsby” and “Moulin Rouge! This video explains how production designer extraordinaires David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco built the “look of love” we see throughout La La Land.

Other nominees in the category included Annette Bening for "Nyad," Lily Gladstone for "Killers of the Flower Moon," Sandra Hüller for "Anatomy of a Fall" and Carey Mulligan for "Maestro." Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 96th Academy Awards, a ceremony which honored excellence in cinematic achievements for some of the past year's biggest films. Forgive my diatribe, but it’s true – there’s no way a studio today would “okay” a massive set piece like the Roman square in Cleopatra. Lightsabers, blasters and X-wings are some of the most famous pieces of production design that have ever been made – and they were all introduced in the original Star Wars. We see this reverence throughout the film, like in Mia’s bedroom where her wall is adorned with a mural of Ingrid Bergman, and in the epilogue which was clearly inspired by director Damien Chazelle’s favorite musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.

Amadeus is one of those movies you watch and think “wow that was a visual treat.” Patrizia von Brandenstein and Karel Cerny should be commended for not only recreating 18th-century Vienna, but for adding visual flair to the era with color and neo-baroque detail. Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Julius Caesar used some of the same sets as the 1951 film Quo Vadis — so it was important that Gibbons and the team tinkered them in such a way to mask the similarities. Before we rank the best winners of the Academy Award for Best Production Design, let’s go over a couple things. The Academy Award for Best Production Design used to be called the Academy Award for Art Direction and it was given out to the best black-and-white film and the best color film each year. With a low, side-slung chignon woven by hairstylist Mara Roszak using Augustinus Bader hair products and the Zuvi blowdryer. Makeup artist Kyra Panchenko prepped skin with Face Gym devices and painted bold, scarlet lips.

With a low-key ponytail styled by Renato Campora using Hair Rituel by Sisley-Paris and Madison Reed products and dusty rose lips courtesy of makeup pro Kristofer Buckle with Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution Lipstick in Super Cindy. With piled high hair sculpted by mane man Vernon Francois and strawberry lips done by beauty guru Nick Barose using Lancome makeup. With a high, knotted bun and soft pink lips and lined lids done by makeup artist Misha Shahzada using Shiseido's Kajal InkArtist.

Before the Oscar was announced, each best actress nominee was honored by previous best actress winners including Michelle Yeoh, Sally Field, Charlize Theron, Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Lange. Stockhausen has collaborated with director Wes Anderson on four films; including The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch. Pinnock has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Production Design five times but her only win was this one for Budapest. Lost Horizon isn’t just famous for its brilliant production design though; as Capra explains in the clip above, he had to cut the film’s first two reels after a catastrophic first showing. At the time of its production, Frank Capra’sLost Horizon was the most expensive film ever made – and it’s clear that a lot of the budget went to the film’s extravagant production design, which was headed by Stephen Goosson. There’s just so much authenticity to the production design in The Aviator that it’s hard not to marvel at it.