‘Oppenheimer,’ ‘Poor Things’ Take Top Honors at Art Directors Guild Awards

Jazz Tangcay and Jaden Thompson
·5 min read
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“Saltburn,” “Oppenheimer” and “Poor Things” were among the winners at the 28th Annual Art Director’s Guild Awards which took place in Hollywood on Saturday evening.

Hosted by Max Greenfield, the ADG Awards celebrated outstanding production design in theatrical motion pictures, television, commercials, animated features and music videos.

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“Poor Things” production designers Shona Heath and James Price drew visual references ranging from the paintings of French futurist Albert Robida to Francis Ford Coppola’s “Dracula” to build Yorgos Lanthimos’ extraordinary sets.

In “Oppenheimer,” Ruth De Jong built Los Alamos from the ground up. But her most challenging task came when she had to build the Oval Office for the film’s third act. Working with supervising art director, Samantha Englander, the two had floated the idea of finding a pre-existing build of the Oval Office. They looked no further than HBO’s beloved political satire “Veep.” Not only was “Veep’s” Oval Office built to scale, but it was lying flat-packed, and Englander still had it on hold. The set would take four to five days to reassemble, so De Jong sent a team of construction coordinators to pull it out. “The crown molding was falling off. It was a mess.” The “Oppenheimer” team still needed to build a lobby and cabinet room, so De Jong had crews working around the clock for five days. “Gary Oldman had no idea,” she said. “And the paint was still wet.”

De Jong and Heath and Price are both competing for the production design Oscar. Other nominees in that category include “Barbie,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and “Napoleon,” all of which landed ADG nominations.

Legendary production designer Lawrence G. Paull was inducted into the ADG Hall of Fame as part of the ceremony. Additionally, director and producer Mimi Leder received the cinematic imagery award for her numerous contributions to the industry. David Lowery, Francine West, Greg Papalia and Wynn P. Thomas received lifetime achievement awards.

The full list of winners is below.

FEATURE FILM WINNERS:

PERIOD FEATURE FILM

“Asteroid City”
Production Designer: Adam Stockhausen

“Killers of the Flower Moon”
Production Designer: Jack Fisk

“Maestro”
Production Designer: Kevin Thompson

“Napoleon”
Production Designer: Arthur Max

“Oppenheimer”
Production Designer: Ruth De Jong

FANTASY FEATURE FILM

“Barbie”
Production Designer: Sarah Greenwood

“The Creator”
Production Designer: James Clyne

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”
Production Designer: Beth Mickle

“Poor Things”
Production Designers: James Price, Shona Heath

“Wonka”
Production Designer: Nathan Crowley

CONTEMPORARY FEATURE FILM

“Beau is Afraid”
Production Designer: Fiona Crombie

“John Wick: Chapter 4”
Production Designer: Kevin Kavanaugh

“The Killer”
Production Designer: Donald Graham Burt

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
Production Designer: Gary Freeman

“Saltburn”
Production Designer: Suzie Davies

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

“The Boy and the Heron”
Art Director: Yôji Takeshige

“Elemental”
Production Designer: Don Shank

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Production Designer: Patrick O’Keefe

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie”
Production Designer: Guillaume Aretos

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”
Production Designer: Yashar Kassai

TELEVISION WINNERS:

ONE-HOUR PERIOD SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES

“The Crown” – “Sleep Dearie Sleep”
Production Designer: Martin Childs

“The Gilded Age” – “His Grace the Duke,” “Close Enough to Touch,” “Warning Shots”
Production Designer: Bob Shaw

“The Great” – “You the People,” “Fun,” “Peter and the Wolf”
Production Designer: Francesca di Mottola

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” – “Susan”
Production Designer: Bill Groom

“Perry Mason”- “Chapter Eleven”
Production Designer: Keith Cunningham

ONE-HOUR FANTASY SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES

“For All Mankind” – “The Bear Hug”
Production Designer: Seth Reed

“The Last of Us” – “Infected”
Production Designer: John Paino

“Loki” – “Ouroboros”
Production Designer: Kasra Farahani

“The Mandalorian” – “Chapter 23: The Spies”
Production Designers: Doug Chiang, Andrew L. Jones

“Silo” – “Machines”
Production Designer: Gavin Bocquet

ONE-HOUR CONTEMPORARY SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES

“Fargo” – “Trials and Tribulations”
Production Designer: Trevor Smith

“The Morning Show” – “The Kármán Line,” “Ghost in the Machine,” “Love Island”
Production Designer: Nelson Coates

“Poker Face” – “Escape From Shit Mountain”
Production Designer: Judy Rhee

“Succession” – “America Decides”
Production Designer: Stephen Carter

“Yellowjackets” – “Digestif”
Production Designer: Margot Ready

TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

“All the Light We Cannot See”
Production Designer: Simon Elliott

“A Murder at the End of the World”
Production Designer: Alex DiGerlando

“Beef”
Production Designer: Grace Yun

“Daisy Jones & The Six”
Production Designer: Jessica Kender

“Lessons in Chemistry”
Production Designer: Cat Smith

HALF HOUR SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES

“The Bear” – “Omelette”
Production Designer: Merje Veski

“Only Murders in the Building” – “Sitzprobe,” “Opening Night”
Production Designer: Patrick Howe

“Our Flag Means Death” – “Impossible Birds,” “Red Flags,” “Man on Fire”
Production Designer: Ra Vincent

“Reservation Dogs” – “Deer Lady”
Production Designer: Brandon Tonner-Connolly

“What We Do in the Shadows” – “A Weekend at Morrigan Manor”
Production Designer: Shayne Fox

MULTI-CAMERA SERIES

“Bob Hearts Abishola” – “Twerk O’ Clock”
Production Designer: Francoise Cherry-Cohen

“Bunk’d” -“The Glitching Hour”
Production Designer: Kelly Hogan

“The Conners”- “Road Trip and Guilt Trip”
Production Designer: Jerry Dunn

“Frasier” – “Moving In”
Production Designer: Glenda Rovello

“That 90’s Show” – “Free Leia”
Production Designer: Greg J. Grande

VARIETY OR REALITY SERIES

“A Black Lady Sketch Show” – “I’m Clapping From My Puss,” “What Kind of Medicine Does Dr. King Practice?,” “Peek-A-Boob, Your Titty’s Out”
Production Designers: Cindy Chao, Michele Yu

“History of the World, Part II” -“VIII”
Production Designer: Monica Sotto

“RuPaul’s Drag Race” -“Blame it on the Edit”
Production Designer: Gianna Costa

“Saturday Night Live” – “Jenna Ortega/The 1975,” “Nate Bargatze/Foo Fighters”
Production Designers: Keith Ian Raywood, Akira Yoshimura, N. Joseph DeTullio

“Squid Game” – The Challenge: “War”
Production Designers: Mathieu Weekes, Benjamin Norman

VARIETY SPECIAL

“76th Annual Tony Awards”
Production Designer: Steve Bass

“80th Golden Globe Awards”
Production Designer: Brian Stonestreet

“Dave Chappelle: The Dreamer”
Production Designer: Bruce Ryan

“Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas”
Production Designer: Misty Buckley

“The Weeknd: Live at Sofi Stadium”
Production Designer: Es Devlin

COMMERCIALS

Apple: The New Macbook Pro: “Scary Fast”
Production Designer: François Audouy

Booking.com: “Somewhere, Anywhere,” The Musical
Production Designer: Florencia Martin

Dom Perignon: “Lady Gaga – The Labor of Creation”
Production Designer: Dylan Kahn

Giorgio Armani: “Armani Si”
Production Designer: Annie Beauchamp

M&M’s: “Ma&Ya’s”
Production Designer: Natalie Groce

SHORT FORMAT & MUSIC VIDEOS

Apple: “The Underdogs: Swiped Mac”
Production Designer: Jason Hougaard

boygenius: “the film”
Production Designer: Jen Dunlap

Lana Del Rey featuring Jon Batiste: “Candy Necklace”
Production Designer: Brandon Mendez

Miley Cyrus: “River”
Production Designer: Kurt Gefke

Taylor Swift: “I Can See You”
Production Designer: Ethan Tobman and Miren Marañón

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