AFT Awards: Best Production Design

This is the eighth category of the 14th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. I’m drawing only from films that were either released or playing at a film festival in the 2020 calendar year. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Wendy
Mank
Alice Junior
Ema
The Trial of the Chicago 7

The winner:
Sylvie's Love (Mayne Berke) made its city setting come alive with the passion of its two romantic partners from one location to the next.

Other nominees:
I'm Your Woman (Gae S. Buckley) – my interview with Gae
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Mark Ricker) –my interview with Mark
News of the World (David Crank) – my interview with David
Promising Young Woman (Michael Perry)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 13th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
1917, Jojo Rabbit, Judy and Punch, The Irishman, The Last Black Man in San Francisco

The winner:
Ms. Purple was a gorgeously-colored look at Los Angeles that framed its main character’s isolation in a mesmerizing way.

Other nominees:
The Beach Bum
Joker
Invisible Life
Parasite

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 12th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
The Old Man and the Gun, American Animals, Bohemian Rhapsody, Black Panther, Annihilation, Disobedience, First Man, Roma

The winner:
If Beale Street Could Talk (Mark Friedberg and Kris Moran) illustrated a beautiful world quietly bursting with color.

Other nominees:
The Favourite (Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton)
Colette (Michael Carlin, Lisa Chugg and Nora Talmaier)
The Death of Stalin (Cristina Casali and Charlotte Dirickx)
Mary Poppins Returns (John Myhre and Gordon Sim)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 11th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Beauty and the Beast, Call Me By Your Name, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, In Between, Land of Mine, Logan, Mudbound, Phantom Thread, Song to Song, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Sweet Virginia, The Greatest Showman, The Space Between Us, The Zookeeper's Wife, Their Finest, Wonder Wheel, Wonderstruck

The winner:
The Shape of Water (Paul D. Austerberry, Shane Vieau and Jeffrey A. Melvin) invented its own magical universe that came to life most visually in each scene with deliberate colors and mesmerizing backdrops.

Other nominees:
Blade Runner 2049 (Dennis Gassner and Alessandra Querzola)
The Florida Project (Stephonik Youth and Kurt Thoresen)
Battle of the Sexes (Judy Becker, Matthew Flood Ferguson and Alexander Wei)
Downsizing (Stefania Cella, Patricia Larman, Jørgen Stangebye Larsen, Karen Manthey, Karl J. Martin, Doug J. Meerdink, Odetta Stoddard and Kimberley Zaharko)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 10th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
A Bigger Splash, Arrival, Doctor Strange, Equals, Hail, Caesar!, Hell or High Water, Star Trek Beyond

The winner:
La La Land (Austin Gong, Sandy Reynolds-Wasco, David Wasco) made an energetic, lively musical come to life with unforgettable, eye-popping colors and vivid, whimsical scenery.

Other nominees:
20th Century Women (Aimee Athnos, Chris Jones, Traci Spadorcia, Neil Wyzanowski)
High-Rise (Heather Greenlees, Nigel Pollock, Paki Smith, Mark Tildesley, Frank Walsh)
American Honey (Kelly McGehee, Lance Mitchell, Graham Wichman)
Moonlight (Mabel Barba, Hannah Beachler, Regina McLarney)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 9th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
'71, 99 Homes, Beasts of No Nation, Bridge of Spies, Mad Max: Fury Road, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Shanghai, Son of Saul, The Hateful Eight, The Martian, The Revenant, Trumbo

The winner:
Carol (Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler) told a period love story with an abundance of stylized colors and purposefully created backdrops to anchor it in an even more timeless universe.

Other nominees:
Brooklyn (François Séguin, Louise Tremblay, Jenny Oman, Suzanne Cloutier)
Joy (Judy Becker, Jim Coraloran, Peter Rogness)
The Danish Girl (Eve Stewart and Michael Standish)
Misunderstood (Eugenia F. Di Napoli)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 8th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 156 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Into the Woods, Selma, Snowpiercer, The Theory of Everything, Unbroken

The winner:
Interstellar (Nathan Crowley, Kendelle Elliott , Gary Fettis, Eggert Ketilsson , David F. Klassen , Gary Kosko, Josh Lusby, Eric Sundahl, Dean Wolcott) crafted a stunning, marvelous universe fitting of its name, simultaneously infinite and contained at the same time.

Other nominees:
A Most Violent Year (Melanie J. Baker, John P. Goldsmith, and Doug Huszti)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (Stephan Gessler, Anna Pinnock, Adam Stockhausen, Gerald Sullivan, Steve Summersgill)
Birdman (George DeTitta Jr., Stephen H. Carter, Kevin Thompson)
Young Ones (Brian Glaser, Sharon Lomofsky, and Emilia Roux)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 7th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 100 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Aftermath, Blue is the Warmest Color, Fruitvale Station, Gravity, Her, Love Is All You Need, Mud, No, Star Trek Into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave

The winner:
The Great Gatsby (Damien Drew, Ian Gracie, Catherine Martin, Karen Murphy, and Michael Turner) was lavishly decorated and perfectly curated, an astounding work of art.

Other nominees:
The Look of Love (Carly Reddin and Jacqueline Abrahams)
Kill Your Darlings (Alexios Chrysikos and Stephen H. Carter)
Rush (Daniel Chour, Michelle Day, Mark Digby, Katrina Dunn, Petra Klimek, Patrick Rolfe, Thorsten Sabel, Ivan Weightman, Christopher Wyatt)
Blancanieves (Alain Bainée)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 6th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 95 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
The Avengers, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Black Tulip, Damsels in Distress, The Dark Knight Rises, Django Unchained, Footnote, Hitchcock, The Hobbit, Hyde Park on Hudson, The Impossible , Les Miserables, The Master, La Rafle, Zero Dark Thirty

The winner:
Anna Karenina (Sarah Greenwood) was visually stunning and gorgeous, creatively and artfully weaving its set changes into the execution of its plot.

Other nominees:
Moonrise Kingdom (Adam Stockhausen)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Dawn Masi)
Life of Pi (David Gropman)
Argo (Sharon Seymour)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 5th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 138 Films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Beginners
The Artist
Romantics Anonymous
Shame
Submarine
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The winner:
In a Better World (Lene Ejlersen & Mathias Holmgreen) animated its bleak settings with color schemes and mesmerizing visuals.

Other nominees:
Drive (Christopher Tandon & Lisa K. Sessions)
Hugo (Dante Ferretti & Francesca Lo Schiavo)
Melancholia (Simone Grau & Louise Drake)
In the Land of Blood and Honey (Zsuzsanna Borvendég, Arwel Evans & Jon Hutman)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
127 Hours, Alice in Wonderland, Daybreakers, District 13: Ultimatum, The Eclipse, The Girl on the Train, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Iron Man 2, Life During Wartime, The Losers, Mao's Last Dancer, Micmacs, Ondine, A Prophet, Red Riding: 1974, Red Riding: 1980, Red Riding: 1983, The Secret in their Eyes, Secretariat, Shutter Island

Runners-up:
SOMEWHERE
THE KING’S SPEECH
DOGTOOTH
KISSES
MAO’S LAST DANCER

The winner:
Inception (Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias & Douglas A. Mowat) designed countless realities, each more visually mesmerizing and astounding than the next.

Other nominees:
I Am Love (Francesca Balestra Di Mottola & Monica Sironi)
Micmacs (Aline Bonetto)
A Woman, A Gun, and a Noodle Shop (Han Zhong)
The Killer Inside Me (Rob Simons, Mark Tildesley & Jeanette Scott)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 3rd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I've ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 92 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

The winner:
A Single Man (Ian Phillips) used colors, sets, and backgrounds that made its sedated characters come magnificently alive.

Other nominees:
Avatar (Rick Carter & Robert Stronbergh)
Broken Embraces (Victor Molero)
Watchmen (François Auduoy, Helen Jarvis & James Steuart)
Inglourious Basterds (David Wasco)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the eighth category of the 2nd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order.

The winner:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Donald Graham Burt & Victor J. Solfo) looked so incredible with all its colors and fantasy-like backgrounds, and drove this timeless story by planting it in such awe-inspiring settings.

Other nominees:
My Blueberry Nights (Judy Rhee)
Revolutionary Road (Kristi Zea & Debra Schutt)
Slumdog Millionaire (Michelle Day)
Synecdoche, New York (Adam Stockhausen)

AFT Awards: Best Art Direction

This is the seventh category of the 1st Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are listed in alphabetical order by film title. Winners will be announced in late February.

**I have omitted descriptions for each of the nominees for a few categories because they have become repetitive. For some of my own invented categories, they will return.**

Runners-up:
LUST, CAUTION
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES
DAYS OF GLORY
SMOKIN’ ACES
THE KINGDOM

The nominees:
AFTER THE WEDDING
ATONEMENT
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
HAIRSPRAY
SWEENEY TODD