"Mrs. Maisel," "Handmaid's Tale," "The Alienist," "GLOW," "Sesame Street" score TV honors
The Favourite (production designer Fiona Crombie), Black Panther (Hannah Beachler), Crazy Rich Asians (Nelson Coates) and Isle of Dogs (Adam Stockhausen, Paul Harrod) garnered the marquee feature film honors at the Art Directors Guild (ADG) 23rd annual Excellence in Production Design Awards on Saturday evening (2/2).
On the TV side, the award recipients included The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Bill Groom), The Handmaid’s Tale (Mark White, Elisabeth Williams), The Alienist (Mara LePere-Schloop), GLOW (Todd Fjelsted) and Sesame Street (David Gallo). Apple’s “Welcome Home” commercial (Christopher Glass) earned distinction in the short-form category.
Honors were presented during a black-tie gala at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown before an audience in excess of 950. ADG president Nelson Coates and Art Directors Council chair Mark Worthington presided over the awards ceremony emceed by actor/comedian David Alan Grier. Producer of this year’s ADG Awards was production designer Scott Moses, ADG.
Rob Marshall (Mary Poppins Returns, Chicago) was presented with the ADG’s prestigious Cinematic Imagery Award following a filmed salute to the Oscar®-nominated and Emmy®-winning filmmaker, producer, theater director and choreographer.
Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to Oscar-nominated production designer Jeannine Oppewall, sr. illustrator and production designer Ed Verreaux, scenic artist Jim Fiorito, and set designer and art director William F. Matthews. The late British production designer and set decorator Anthony Masters, an Oscar nominee for 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Benjamin Carre, best known for his work on The Phantom of the Opera and The Wizard of Oz, were inducted into the ADG Hall of Fame.
Here’s a category-by-category rundown of the competition winners:
WINNERS FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR A FEATURE FILM
PERIOD FILM
THE FAVOURITE
Production Designer: FIONA CROMBIE
FANTASY FILM
BLACK PANTHER
Production Designer: HANNAH BEACHLER
CONTEMPORARY FILM
CRAZY RICH ASIANS
Production Designer: NELSON COATES
ANIMATED FILM
ISLE OF DOGS
Production Designers: ADAM STOCKHAUSEN, PAUL HARROD
WINNERS FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRODUCTION DESIGN FOR TELEVISION
One-Hour Period or Fantasy Single-Camera Series
THE MARVELOUS MRS. MAISEL: “SIMONE,” “WE’RE GOING TO THE CATSKILLS!”
Production Designer: BILL GROOM
One-Hour Contemporary Single-Camera Series
THE HANDMAID’S TALE: “JUNE,” “UNWOMEN”
Production Designers: MARK WHITE, ELISABETH WILLIAMS
Television Movie or Limited Series
THE ALIENIST: “THE BOY ON THE BRIDGE”
Production Designer: MARA LePERE-SCHLOOP
Half Hour Single-Camera Series
GLOW: “VIKING FUNERAL,” “PERVERTS ARE PEOPLE, TOO,” “ROSALIE”
Production Designer: TODD FJELSTED
Multi-Camera Series
SESAME STREET: “BOOK WORMING,” “THE COUNT’S COUNTING ERROR,” “STREET FOOD”
Production Designer: DAVID GALLO
Short Format: Web Series, Music Video or Commercial
APPLE: “WELCOME HOME”
Production Designer: CHRISTOPHER GLASS
Variety, Reality or Event Special
THE OSCARS: “90TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS”
Production Designer: DEREK McLANE
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More