The Art Director's Guild have named the most well designed and carefully decorated movies of the year. How well do you think they did in terms of Best? This is as good a time as any to tell you that we've begun our annual Film Bitch Awards, now in their (gulp) 15th year so you can see my preferred ballot there.
The guild which represents 2300 industry people like Production Designers, Art Directors, Set Designers, Model Makers and Artists of various kinds (Scenic, Title, Matte, etcetera) voted for the following 15 films, most of which are firmly entrenched in the Best Picture discussion indicated that they didn't watch too many screeners before voting.
Did Inherent Vice's elaborate last supper joke win it this nomination? Or was it the whorehouse?
Period Film
INHERENT VICE - David Crank
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL -Adam Stockhausen
THE IMITATION GAME -Maria Djurkovic
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING -John Paul Kelly
UNBROKEN - Jon Hutman
But what about?: Mr Turner which is more challenging and fascinating and epic in its production scope than most of these nominees; The Homesman which is more memorably designed than some of these; I probably like Unbroken more than a lot of critics but I'm not sure it's more worthy of a WW II recreation notice here than, say, Fury? In short, they've been listening to the Best Picture conversation.
More Nominations & Commentary after the jump
I'm Still Nervous About: Grand Budapest Hotel which is obviously the most amazing entry among these but it could just as easily been slipped into the fantasy category. Incredibly, as I've often mentioned, no Wes Anderson film has ever been nominated in this category at the Oscars. We all hope this is the year but we've been disappointed many times before with the Academy's Art Direction branch and their resistance to his always amazingly art directed films. Of the other nominees The Imitation Game is fairly impressive in this category but then Maria Djurkovic often does great work (see also: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Hours)
Fantasy & Contemporary & TV Nominees after the jump...
Fantasy Film
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER - Peter Wenham
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES -James Chinlund
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY -Charles Wood
INTERSTELLAR Nathan Crowley
INTO THE WOODS - Dennis Gassner
Egregious Snub: No Snowpiercer? THIS IS NOT OKAY.
Omissions: At long last they've left Middle Earth behind. No Hobbits. Hurrah. This isn't the Emmys, you know. You can't just keep giving it to the same things all the time. Overall this is a pretty solid group though I'm a little surprised that they didn't embrace Maleficent and not surprised but wonder if they should have embraced Noah. That Ark was pretty cool.
Cheers & Confusion: James Chinlund's ape forest and post-ape decaying cities. We spoke to him about his epic work on this film we were so impressed. On a less happily ever after note, I must admit that I feel some ambivalence and confusion about Dennis Gassner's work on Into the Woods. I don't think the film looks great (though it does sound great) -- was it just the wrong choice of color palette or under lighting? -- which is tremendously puzzling given that Gassner is one of our most incredible designers. His filmography is just filled to the brim with visual triumphs.
Contemporary Film
AMERICAN SNIPER Production Designers: James J Murakami, Charisse Cardenas
BIRDMAN Kevin Thompson
FOXCATCHER Jess Gonchor
GONE GIRL Donald Graham Burt
NIGHTCRAWLER Kevin Kavanaugh
Egregious Lack of Imagination Epidemic: This is the category where they most often show their Best Picture blinders ignoring features which are very impressively designed but have no conceivably way in to a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. I'm not sure how you can watch something like Under the Skin or The Babadook or Begin Again or Only Lovers Left Alive or A Most Violent Year or Neighbors and find their production design less impressive than, say, American Sniper or Nightcrawler (neither of which give their designers all that much to do beyond the norm no matter the quality of the film in question)
Maybe they didn't watch that many movies this year? Keeping it in the Best Picture family!
What do you think of their nominees? And mine?
TELEVISION NOMINATIONS IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
One-Hour Period or Fantasy Single-Camera Television Series
GAME OF THRONES: The Laws of Gods and Men, The Mountain and the Viper
Production Designer: DEBORAH RILEY
MAD MEN: Time Zones
Production Designer: DAN BISHOP
GOTHAM: Pilot, "Selina Kyle, Arkham
Production Designer: DOUG KRANER
THE KNICK: Method and Madness, Working Late a Lot
Production Designer: HOWARD CUMMINGS
BOARDWALK EMPIRE: Golden Days for Boys and Girls
Production Designer: BILL GROOM
One-Hour Contemporary Single-Camera Television Series
HOMELAND: The Drone Queen
Production Designer: JOHN D. KRETSCHMER
HOUSE OF CARDS: Chapter 18
Production Designer: STEVE ARNOLD
JUSTIFIED: Murder Of Crowes, Wrong Roads, The Toll
Production Designer: DAVE BLASS
THE NEWSROOM: Boston, Main Justice, Contempt
Production Designer: KAREN STEWARD
TRUE DETECTIVE: The Locked Room, Form and Void
Production Designer: ALEX DiGERLANDO
Television Movie or Mini-Series
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW: Massacres and Matinees
Production Designer: MARK WORTHINGTON
COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY: Unafraid of the Dark
Production Designer: SETH REED
FARGO: The Crocodiles Dilemma
Production Designer: JOHN BLACKIE
HOUDINI: Part I, Part II
Production Designer: PATRIZIA VON BRANDENSTEIN
SHERLOCK: His Last Vow
Production Designer: ARWEL W. JONES
Half Hour Single-Camera Television Series
CALIFORNICATION: Faith, Hope, Love, Like Father Like Son, Kickoff
Production Designer: RAY YAMAGATA
HOUSE OF LIES: Wreckage, Middlegame, Zha- Moreng
Production Designer: RAY YAMAGATA
MODERN FAMILY: Halloween 3: Awesomeland, Marco Polo, Wont You Be Our Neighbor
Production Designer: CLAIRE BENNETT
SILICON VALLEY: Articles of Incorporation, Signaling Risk, Optimal Tip-To-Tip Efficiency
Production Designer: RICHARD TOYON
VEEP: Clovis, Special Relationship, Debate
Production Designer: JAMES GLOSTER
Multi-Camera Television Series
HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: How Your Mother Met Me
Production Designer: STEPHAN OLSON
MIKE & MOLLY: Mike & Mollys Excellent Adventure, The Dice Lady Cometh
Production Designer: JOHN SHAFFNER
THE BIG BANG THEORY: The Locomotive Manipulation, The Convention Conundrum, The Status Quo Combustion
Production Designer: JOHN SHAFFNER:
THE MILLERS: You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings, Man, Con-Troversy, Papa Was a Rolling Bone
Production Designer: GLENDA ROVELLO
UNDATABLE: Pilot
Production Designer: CABOT McMULLEN
Awards or Event Special
86th ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS
Production Designer: DEREK McLANE
PETER PAN LIVE!
Production Designer: DEREK McLANE
SUPER BOWL XLVIII HALFTIME SHOW: STARRING BRUNO MARS
Production Designer: BRUCE RODGERS
THE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS 2014
Production Designer: JOE STEWART
THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED AMERICA: A GRAMMY SALUTE TO THE BEATLES
Production Designer: MATTHEW RUSSELL
THE 66th PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS
Production Designer: KEITH IAN RAYWOOD
Short Format: WebSeries, Music Video or Commercial
APPLE: Perspective
Production Designer: SEAN HARGREAVES
COLDPLAY: Magic
Production Designer: EMMA FAIRLEY
IKEA: Carousel
Production Designer: RICHARD LASSALLE
KATY PERRY: Dark Horse
Production Designer: JEREMY REED
SIMPSONS MARATHON
Production Designer: ZACH MATHEWS
Variety, Competition, Reality, or Game Show Series
KEY & PEELE: Halloween Episode, Alien Imposters
Production Designer: GARY KORDAN
PORTLANDIA: Celery
Production Designer: TYLER B. ROBINSON
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: Louis C. K. with Sam Smith, Anna Kendrick with Pharrell Williams, Chris Rock with Prince
Production Designers: KEITH IAN RAYWOOD, EUGENE LEE, AKIRA YOSHIMURA, N. JOSEPH DeTULLIO
THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON: 1, 45, 56
Production Designers: EUGENE LEE, PETER BARAN
THE VOICE: Blind Auditions Premiere
Production Designers: JAMES PEARSE CONNELLY, ANTON GOSS