84th Academy Awards – ‘Best Art Direction’

Role of the Art Director and Set Decorator:

Art directors, in collaboration with the set decorator, select the settings and style to visually tell the story.  A large part of their duties include the administrative aspects of the art department, as well as, overall quality control by supervising and serving as the liaison between departments; especially Construction, Special FX, Property, Transportation (graphics), and Locations Departments. The Art Director also attends all production meetings and tech scouts in order to provide information to the set designers in preparation for all departments to have a visual floor plan of each location visited.

A set decorator is in charge of the set dressing on a film set, which includes the furnishings, wallpaper, lighting fixtures, and many of the other objects that will be seen in the film. Props and set dressing often overlap, but are provided by different departments.

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Voting Procedures:

A ‘Reminder List’ of all eligible motion pictures shall be sent with a nominations ballot to all members of the Art Directors Branch except costume designers, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five motion pictures.

The five motion pictures receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Art Direction award.

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Nominations:

The Artist 

• Art Director:  Laurence Bennett
• This is Laurence’s first Oscar nomination, however, he’s the Production Designer behind ‘Crash’, ‘The Next Three Days’, ‘Fire in the Sky’ and one of my all-time favorite TV Shows ‘Once and Again’… so in my book Laurence flippin’ rocks! 
• Set Decorator:  Robert Gould
• As for Robert Gould, this is his second nomination.  He was previously nominated for ‘Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World’ and also worked on ‘Angels & Demons’, ‘Soul Plane’, ‘RoboCop’, and the original ‘Total Recall’.

This appears to be the first time these guys have worked together and they are also nominated for the British Academy Award.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 

• Art Director:  Stuart Craig 
• This is Stuart’s 9^th nomination and has won 3 times for ‘Ghandi’, ‘Dangerous Liaisons’, and ‘The English Patient’.  He was previously nominated for ‘The Elephant Man’, ‘The Mission’, ‘Chaplin’, and three other of Harry Potter films.
• Set Decorator:  Stephanie McMillan
• 5th nomination, having won previously alongside Stuart on ‘The English Patient’.  She was also nominated for three previous ‘Harry Potter’ films.

Hands down, this is an amazingly dynamic and versatile team.  I would really like to see these guys finally bring home the Oscar for their incredible work on the Harry Potter series… but there is some tough competition this year.

  

Hugo 

• Art Director:  Dante Ferretti 
• 9^th nomination, have won twice for ‘Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street’ and ‘The Aviator’.  His previous nominations consist of ‘Gangs of New York’, ‘Kundun’, Interview with a Vampire’, ‘The Age of Innocence’, ‘Hamlet’ and ;The Adventure of Baron Von Muchausen’.
• Set Decorator:   Francesca Lo Schiavo
• 8^th nomination and 2 wins.  Francesca worked with Dante on all the above films except for ‘The Age of Innocence’.

It probably goes without saying, this husband/wife team has some mad-chops.  They have a serious chance for to earn Oscar number three! 

Midnight in Paris 

• Art Director:  Anne Seibel
• 1^st nomination. 
• Set Decorator:   Hélène Dubreuil
• 1^st nomination.

This is a pretty huge nomination for these guys.  Up until now, they’ve either worked on French films or recruited by American films, only, for their shoots in France.  For example, Anne served as art director for ‘Hereafter’, ‘The Happening’, ‘Rush Hour 3’, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’, and ‘Munich’… but only for the parts filmed in France.  The same goes for Helene, who has only worked on French films and television until ‘Hereafter’ and ‘Julie and Julia’ came to town.  I my opinion, these two have no chance of winning, however, I am so happy to see their efforts honored with a nomination.  They did a wonderful job in this wonderful movie.

War Horse 

• Art Director:   Rick Carter
• 3^rd nomination, 1 win for ‘Avatar’ and was previously nominated for ‘Forrest Gump’.
• Set Decorator:   Lee Sandales
• 1^st nomination. 

Rick has an incredible resume: ‘Sucker Punch’, ‘Munich’, ‘War of the Worlds’, ‘A.I.’, ‘Cast Away’, and ‘Back to the Future II and III’… plus he’s first feature gig was for ‘Three Fugitives’ which is a movie I loved as a kid.  This is Lee’s lead-set decoration gig.  Up until now, Lee has been credited as the assistant or ‘additional’ set decoration… that said, Lee’s been working on of serious movies like ‘Chocolat’, ‘Children of Men’, ‘The Golden Compass’, and the first four ‘Harry Potter’ movies.

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Snubs:

Only three of the five films nominated consistently pop up on the critics list… however, two movies, not nominated by the Academy, also pop up on the critics list:  ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ and ‘The Tree of Life’.

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Oscar Trends:

 I really wish I could take the lead from the ‘Art Directors Guild’… you would think there would be a lot of overlap… but there isn’t.  In the last few years the winner of the Oscar wasn’t even mentioned as part of the guilds annual honors.  And well… this year they are giving special recognition to the folks from ‘Harry Potter’ for a job well done. 

Honestly, I would love to see them get it… but I’m just not tracking it.  I really think it’s a show down between the two critics’ darling: ‘Hugo’ and ‘The Artist’.

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Prediction:  Hugo - Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo

For my complete (weighted) list of Oscar Predictions click here!