Art Directors Guild Awards: ‘Her’, ‘Gravity’, ‘The Great Gatsby’ Win Top Film Prizes; HBO Cleans Up On TV Side; Martin Scorsese Honored
Her, Gravity and The Great Gatsby were the big winners on the film side at tonight’s ADG Awards at the Beverly Hilton. “I didn’t know if we were making a fantasy or a period film in the future,” Her production designer K.K. Barrett in accepting the award. “Spike Jonze told me, ‘Who are we to question what anybody else feels is real.’” Looking around the room, I believe in all your realities.”
Related: WGA Awards: ‘Captain Phillips’ & ‘Her’ Win Top Film Awards
Said production designer Andy Nicholson from the podium: “Gravity was an incredibly long and tough journey for my crew. None of this would’ve been possible without the artistic vision of Alfonso Cuaron.”
Martin Scorsese scored points in the room as he accepted the guild’s prestigious Cinematic Imagery Award, presented by his Wolf Of Wall Street stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill. “How does one even separate cinema from PD? You can’t,” he said. “We have images in our mind, pictures in our head, but yours are the ones I look to to get those images on the screen. You’ve never let me down. This [award] is for you.”
HBO cleaned up on the TV side, with Game Of Thrones, Behind The Candelabra and Veep all picking up trophies during the 18th annual Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Awards. The show was hosted by Owen Benjamin, a comic and regular on the TBS comedy Sullivan & Son.
Here is the complete list of winners. Read on for the recap of our live blog.
Contemporary Film
K.K. Barrett, Her
Fantasy Film
Andy Nicholson, Gravity
Period Film
Catherine Martin, The Great Gatsby
One-Hour Single Camera Television Series
Gemma Jackson, Game Of Thrones, Episode: “Valar Dohaeris”
Half Hour Single-Camera Television Series
Jim Gloster, Veep, Episode: “Helsinki”
Television Movie or Mini-Series
Howard Cummings, Behind The Candelabra
Awards, Music, or Game Shows
Steve Bass, The 67th Annual Tony Awards
Multi-Camera, Variety, or Unscripted Series
Tyler Robinson, Portlandia, Episode: “Missionaries”
Short Format, Live Action Series
Brian Kane, Battlestar Galactica: Blood And Chrome, Episode: “Pilot”
Commercial, PSA, Promo, and Music Video
Todd Cherniawsky, Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Episode: “Epic Night Out”
Cinematic Imagery Award
Martin Scorsese
Lifetime Achievement Award
Rick Carter
Hall of Fame Inductees
Robert Clatworthy, Harper Goff and J. Michael Riva
Here’s our live blog:
ADG Awards host Owen Benjamin is pacing backstage, getting ready to go on. He was telling a handler that he was excited to host and write jokes for such an artistic group as tonight’s.
A taped bit is being shown featuring Benjamin on a blind date and continually changing up the restaurant with the help of art directors. He goes from a trendy club to a rustic setting.
In the video, Benjamin says he has his own personal art department. He disses directors and actors and says art directors are the true magic behind all films. It’s getting lots of laughs from the audience.
Now the poor host’s date is walking off with an art director. “Man, I should’ve been an art director,” Benjamin says. “This comedy shit sucks.”
Now he’s onstage.
“Out of all the awards shows, this one’s important,” Benjamin says. “We’re here to honor the art department — give it up for the art department. Good production design can’t be noticed. They have to give you the details and make you believe the story.”
Now he riffing on some of the nomination films.
“American Hustle was an amazing movie this year. I don’t remember [the actors' performances), but I remember that wallpaper. It simultaneously reminded me of my grandmother and cocaine."
"Gravity was incredible. That art department showed us what nothing looked like."
"We’re here to celebrate the art department, give thanks to the production designer with their art director, the set designer. ... There’s a props guy, a swing team with a truck . ... To be honest I don’t know how that all works, but it happens.”
Benjamin introduces ADG Council President John Shaffner.
Martin Scorsese's name get big applause. Shaffner talks about the Wolf Of Wall Street filmmaker's “profound impact on the world of the moving picture. I look at his work and see such a passion for visual truth. So, welcome, Martin."
And now we're ready for the awards:
Short Format, Live Action Series
Brian Kane, Battlestar Galactica: Blood And Chrome, Episode: “Pilot”
“Go Canada!" Kane said. "Tyler Harran, amazing art director." (Harran went to the stage with him.) Kane also thanked his parents, who wanted a doctor but “got me.”
Commercial, PSA, Promo, and Music Video
Todd Cherniawsky, Call Of Duty: Ghosts, Episode: “Epic Night Out”
Multi-Camera, Variety, or Unscripted Series
Tyler Robinson, Portlandia, Episode: “Missionaries”
Commenting on how far the IFC show has come, Robinson said, “The pilot was insane, it was me and one other person.”
Acceptance speeches have been short and mostly just thank-yous.
Benjamin introduces the next presenter, Bill Bonhert, as the guy who designed the Ed Sullivan Show sets that the Beatles performed on that historic day 50 years ago tomorrow.
Awards, Music, or Game Shows
Steve Bass, The 67th Annual Tony Awards
The art directors give their regards to Broadway over TV (the Emmys) and music (AMAs, Billboard Awards and the Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show featuring Beyonce).
“This is a really unique night for all of you, but not so much for me because I’m at an awards show every week," Bass said to laughs. "You’ve reached this point in your life where you’re inspired by all these incredible artists and wake up one day and are working right across from them. That’s when you know you’ve made it. The Tony Awards is my favorite event.”
Benjamin later joked, “My life’s expectations have been so low that every day I’m pretty happy.”
Now it's time to honor this year's Hall of Fame inductees. The ADG recognizes Harper Goff, Robert Clatworthy and J. Michael Riva. All of this year's honorees are deceased.
Goff's credits from the 1930s and '40s include Casablanca, Sergeant York and Captain Blood. His montage recognizes all his work for Disney and Disneyland, as his vision was a big part of the theme park’s look. Snippets include 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Clatworthy won the Art Direction-Set Decoration Oscar for Ship Of Fools (1965) and earned noms four other times during the 1960s: Psycho, That Touch Of Mink, Inside Daisy Clover and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Montage also shows scenes from his work on The Twilight Zone, Touch of Evil and Written on the Wind.
Riva, who died in 2012, worked on two Oscar telecasts -- earning Emmy noms for both and a win for the 2007 show -- and earned an Oscar nom for The Color Purple. His long list of credits include Django Unchained (his final film), The Amazing Spider-Man, the first two Iron Man films, Spider-Man 3, three Lethal Weapon pics, A Few Good Men, The Goonies and Halloween II.
Half Hour Single-Camera Television Series
Jim Gloster, Veep, Episode: “Helsinki”
Gloster thanks the “writers for handing me a 78-page script for a 30-minute show." After laughs, he added: "I sent a text to my AD -- we’re filming our last show of the season today -- asking how everything was going, was there any ‘gnashing of teeth.’ And he replied, ‘Others may gnash, but we just smile and get the job done.’”
Television Movie or Mini-Series
Howard Cummings, Behind The Candelabra
That's two in a row for HBO.
“This means a lot, obviously," Cummings said. "It took five years to get this off the ground. I have to thank [director Steven] Soderbergh, who kept hiring me until the film got made. Five years to get it off the ground, five weeks to get it done. You can’t do that by yourself.” He then quoted Liberace: “‘Too much of a good thing is wonderful.’ I think that crazy queen was right.”
Next up is a Lifetime Achievement Award to Avatar and Lincoln Oscar winner Rick Carter. He also scored Academy Award noms for War Horse and Forrest Gump. He has worked on a number of Steven Spielberg films including the first two Jurassic Park pics and the upcoming Jurassic World, War Of The Worlds and A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Other credits include The Polar Express, the second two Back To The Future pics and Spielberg’s mid-’80 TV anthology Amazing Stories.
First, the crowd is shown a commercial for ADG Awards sponsor Kohler. In the production notes, it’s referred to as the “Kohler sizzle reel.”
The Kohler people are showing off a new product, saying it was “inspired” by the art and production designers work. Appears to be a shower head. Maybe a nod to Hall of Fame inductee Robert Clatworthy — you know, the Psycho art director.
A long video montage of Carter careers is accompanied by the Beatles’ “I Am The Walrus.” Robert Zemeckis: “The most beautiful set that Rick built was the house in Forrest Gump. It became a character in the movie.” Spielberg: “Rick is one of the most eclectic PD working today. … He has a runaway imagination — the kind of design work that came from the imagination on A.I., based on no research whatsoever.”
Carter gets the first standing ovation of the night.
“I’m more nervous than I was expecting,” Carter said. “It means a lot more to me than I think I knew. First, I’d like to thank my family, children; David Gersh, my agent. I don’t know quite where to begin. Reflect back on everybody in the art field that we’re in the design world. We see the exterior and all the places we get to go in design. I never understood that part until, as a young traveler in the ’60s, ’70s. … I don’t think even going around the world twice I knew what waited for me in my life as an art director. The portal for production design is answering the question, exploring and realizing, ‘Where are we?’ Those of us tonight know we approach the work often from the inside [not the background]. Bring forth imagery that not only says where we are, we start to define who we are. Not who we are an individuals. I’ve found there’s a collaborate spirit, and when that goes out into the world, it’s not just who we are, it’s what are our values, what’s our character. I know that sounds esoteric to anyone outside this room, but it’s something I strongly believe. … Marty, we haven’t seen each other since 1985, working on Amazing Stories. … In those days, you talked really fast. … I knew that he knew that the fates were watching. He was redefining himself at the time; I was just starting out. He’s vulnerable in his mortality, in his career and in his life.”
Now back to the hardware.
The Breaking Bad and Mad Men clips are popular with the crowd, both earning big cheers. But the winner is …
One-Hour Single Camera Television Series
Gemma Jackson, Game Of Thrones, Episode: “Valar Dohaeris”
Time for the Scorsese tribute. Jonah Hill was scheduled to present the award solo, but he is joined by — surprise! — the other Wolf Of Wall Street Oscar acting nominee: Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo is doing a straight read off the teleprompter, but Hill is a little more natural and emotional.
“It is an honor to be here,” Hill said, “and if you have an extra 10 or 15 minutes, Leo and I would like to take a moment to talk about our next project for Kohler. (Laughs.) We’re here to talk about our idol. I want to say that when thinking about presenting this award to you, I thought about my favorite scenes of your work; they were scenes I couldn’t get out of my head. My favorite being Rupert Pupkin’s fake talk show set.” Nice King Of Comedy reference there, kid.
Scorsese gets a standing-O, natch. Lots of folks snapping pics with cells and even old-school cameras. A video montage features scenes from Hugo, Casino, Gangs of New York, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Mean Streets, The Last Temptation of Christ and others.
“It’s very moving. I thank the ADG for this award,” Scorsese said. “It’s really moving. It’s been a crazy time. Over the years, I’ve collaborated with some amazing people … including Rick Carter. His understanding of what we were going through was very moving. … Bob Shaw, congratulations for his nomination for his work on Boardwalk Empire and Wolf. His work on Wolf was above and beyond the call of duty. We had this incredible [house in Long Island] to shoot for weeks. It was Jordan’s house. There’s the scene where he takes too many pills. Jonah’s on the phone. The main objective was to stop him speaking on the phone. The decor is beautiful; we’re working everywhere in the house. Leo comes into the kitchen and there’s this giant island in the middle of it. Bob said, ‘They’re not gonna move [the island], we can’t move it.’ ‘What are we gonna do?’ Bob says, ‘Can I show you something?’ He runs into the kitchen and he climbs up on the island. It was above and beyond. … How does one even separate cinema from PD? You can’t. … We have images in our mind, pictures in our head, but yours are the ones I look to to get those images on the screen. You’ve never let me down. This [award] is for you.”
Here we go with the Big 3 feature film awards.
Period Film
Catherine Martin, The Great Gatsby
Jon Avnet is plugging his web series (!) and taking way too long to present the next award. Totally off script and telling anecdotes. His Blue star Julia Stiles is beside him, saying nothing. C’mon, dude.
And after five minutes, we get to the nominees. Lots of cheers for Star Trek Into Darkness clip. And the winner is…
Fantasy Film
Andy Nicholson, Gravity
“Gravity was an incredibly long and tough journey for my crew,” Nicholson said. “None of this would’ve been possible without the artistic vision of Alfonso Cuaron.”
Contemporary Film
K.K. Barrett, Her
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