Poor Things, Oppenheimer and Saltburn took top film honors at the 28th annual Art Directors Guild Awards tonight. The Neighborhood and New Girl actor Max Greenfield hosted the show from Ovation Hollywood’s Ray Dolby Ballroom. Check out the full winners list below.
Oppenheimer‘s Ruth De Jong and Poor Things’ James Price and Shona Heath will face off for Best Production Design at the Academy Awards next month. They’ll go up against the production designers and set decorators behind Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon.
The Art Directors Guild divides its top film prizes into Fantasy, Period and Contemporary Feature categories, which went to Poor Things, Oppenheimer and Saltburn, respectively. Since the trophy show launched in 1996, the winner of one of those has gone on to win the Art Direction/Production Design Oscar in 18 of the 27 years. It had a run of nine in a row snapped last year, when All Quiet on the Western Front scored the Academy Award after the Art Directors lauded Everything Everywhere All at Once (Fantasy), Babylon (Period) and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Contemporary).
TV winners include the production design teams behind Beef, Succession, Frasier, Reservation Dogs, The Great, Squid Game: The Challenge and the 80th Golden Globe Awards.
The motion picture awards kicked off with De Jong taking the Period Feature Film for Universal’s Oppenheimer. In an emotional acceptance speech, she noted that the team built a replica of Los Alamos in the desert in just eight weeks and thanked director Christopher Nolan for making a “perfect film.”
The Contemporary Feature Film prize went to Suzie Davis for Amazon MGM Studios’ Saltburn. She was not at the ceremony to accept.
Patrick O’Keefe took the Animated Feature Film prize for Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. He shouted out to the “visionaries” who brought the pic to life. Art director Dean Gordon said from the stage that the Across the Spider-Verse featured “the largest animation crew ever, approaching a thousand people.”
On the TV side, Grace Yun won the Television Movie or Limited Series prize for Netflix’s Beef, and John Paino took the One-Hour Fantasy Single-Camera Series award for HBO’s The Last of Us.
The night’s first TV prize, for One-Hour Period Single-Camera Series, went to Francesca di Mottola for Hulu’s The Great. The award for One-Hour Period Single-Camera Series later went to Stephen Carter for HBO’s now-wrapped Emmy juggernaut Succession.
Glenda Rovello took the ADG’s Multi-Camera Series award for Paramount+’s rebooted Frasier. Brandon Tonner-Connolly followed up with the Half-Hour Single-Camera Series prize for FX’s now-wrapped Reservation Dogs.
Mathieu Weekes and Benjamin Norman won the Variety or Reality Series prize for Netflix’s Squid Game: The Challenge, and Brian Stonestreet later won Variety Special for the 80th Golden Globe Awards on NBC.
The first statuette of the night, for Short Format and Music Videos went to Ethan Tobman and the team behind Taylor Swift’s video for “I Can See You.” Later there was a tie in the Commercials category, with Florencia Martin and François Audouy winning for their respective ads for Booking.com and Apple.
From left: David Lowery, Greg Papalia, Wynn P. Thomas and Francine West
Art Directors Guild
Mimi Leder
Courtesy of Apple
The Morning Show director and producer and two-time ER Emmy winner Mimi Leder received ADG’s 2024 Cinematic Imagery Award. The group presented a quartet of career honors to Jurassic Park and Iron Man franchise storyboard artist David Lowery, Planet of the Apes franchise and Godzilla vs. Kong set designer Greg Papalia, longtime Spike Lee and Mars Attacks! production designer Wynn P. Thomas and The Affair and The Wire scenic artist Francine West.
The late production designer Lawrence G. Paull, a Blade Runner Oscar nominee whose credits also include Back to the Future and Romancing the Stone, was inducted into the ADG Hall of Fame during the ceremony.
Established in 1937, the Art Directors Guild — IATSE Local 800 — represents 3,300 members who work in film, TV and theater as production designers and art directors; scenic, title and graphic artists; set designers and model makers; illustrators and matte artists.
Here are the winners at the 2024 ADG Awards for Excellence in Production Design:
FANTASY FEATURE FILM
Poor Things
Production Designers: James Price, Shona Heath
TELEVISION MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES
Beef
Production Designer: Grace Yun
ONE-HOUR FANTASY SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES|
The Last of Us: “Infected”
Production Designer: John Paino
CONTEMPORARY FEATURE FILM
Saltburn
Production Designer: Suzie Davies
ONE-HOUR CONTEMPORARY SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES
Succession: “America Decides”
Production Designer: Stephen Carter
VARIETY OR REALITY SERIES
Squid Game: The Challenge: “War”
Production Designers: Mathieu Weekes, Benjamin Norman
VARIETY SPECIAL
80th Golden Globe Awards
Production Designer: Brian Stonestreet
COMMERCIALS
(Tie)
Booking.com: “Somewhere, Anywhere,” The Musical
Production Designer: Florencia Martin
Apple: The New Macbook Pro: “Scary Fast”
Production Designer: François Audouy
HALF HOUR SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES
Reservation Dogs: “Deer Lady”
Production Designer: Brandon Tonner-Connolly
MULTI-CAMERA SERIES
Frasier: “Moving In”
Production Designer: Glenda Rovello
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Production Designer: Patrick O’Keefe
PERIOD FEATURE FILM
Oppenheimer
Production Designer: Ruth De Jong
ONE-HOUR PERIOD SINGLE-CAMERA SERIES
The Great: “You the People,” “Fun,” “Peter and the Wolf”
Production Designer: Francesca di Mottola
SHORT FORMAT & MUSIC VIDEOS
Taylor Swift: “I Can See You”
Production Designer: Ethan Tobman