The Art Directors Guild (ADG, IATSE Local 800) will induct legendary production designer and art director Terence Marsh (Doctor Zhivago, Shawshank Redemption) and pioneering silent film art director, costume designer, writer, dancer, and occasional actress Natacha Rambova (Salomé, A Doll’s House) into the ADG Hall of Fame for their extraordinary contributions to the art of visual storytelling. The ceremony will take place at the 27th Annual Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Awards on Saturday February 18, at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown.
Guild president Nelson Coates, ADG, said, “We are so humbled to induct luminaries Terence Marsh and Natasha Rambova into the ADG Hall of Fame, to join the trailblazers of our Guild. The paths of design excellence they forged and the amazing bodies of work they created, have made an indelible mark on the film industry, and will continue to inspire viewers and narrative designers for years to come.”
An esteemed and prolific production designer and art director, Marsh was central to creating the look and feel of a long list of preeminent films that includes Lawrence of Arabia, A Man for All Seasons, The Green Mile and The Hunt for Red October. Over the course of his 50-year career, Marsh collaborated with a veritable who’s who of acclaimed directors and filmmakers: David Lean, John Huston, Mel Brooks, Richard Attenborough, Sydney Pollack, Frank Darabont and Gene Wilder among them, and worked on seven films that were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. He earned two shared Academy Awards for art directing Lean’s Dr. Zhivago and Carol Reed’s Oliver! and was nominated the same number of times for his work as a production designer on Mary, Queen of Scots and Scrooge. Marsh was also nominated for three BAFTA Awards for The Hunt for Red October, A Bridge Too Far and Scrooge.
Maverick film artist and historian Rambova was one of the first women to work as an art director in silent film Hollywood, designing sets that combined meticulous period research with a modern flair for design. She created the costumes for the films she art directed, producing a holistic, avant-garde tableau. Rambova’s first enduring creative partnership was with director Alla Nazimova and she designed all the sets and costumes for Aphrodite (unreleased because of censorship fears), Camille, A Doll’s House and Salome. Rambova’s collaborations with then-husband actor Rudolph Valentino forged her reputation. The pair made seven films together including Monsieur Beaucaire and A Sainted Devil until their divorce.
After producing When Love Grows Cold and producing, writing, designing and acting in What Price Beauty? Rambova abandoned Hollywood for a career in fashion and Egyptology because of studio and tabloid machinations that undermined her reputation. Her trailblazing talent should have guaranteed her an important place in film history, but her resume is plagued by theft of work, credit omissions, and lost projects.
The ADG established its Hall of Fame to honor contributions of legendary production designers and art directors of the past.
The ADG Awards honor excellence in production design in theatrical motion pictures, television, commercials, music videos and animated feature films. As previously announced, Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Baz Luhrmann (Elvis) and his producing partner and collaborator Academy Award-winning Catherine Martin will receive the Cinematic Imagery Award. Multi- Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio) will be honored with the William Cameron Menzies Award, celebrating his visually striking and emotionally rich body of work.
Returning as producer of this year’s ADG Awards is art director Michael Allen Glover, ADG (Station Eleven, The Alienist, Solos). Joining the producing team is production designer Megan Elizabeth Bell, ADG (Out of the Blue, Breakwater, American Murderer).
ADG Awards are bestowed upon productions filmed in the U.S. by producers signatory to the IATSE agreement and upon foreign entries without restrictions.
