Oscar-nominated production designer Joe Alves, best known for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the three Jaws films, will receive the Art Directors Guild (ADG, IATSE Local 800) Lifetime Achievement Award atthe 24th Annual ADG “Excellence in Production Design” Awards. A true veteran of Hollywood’s studio system, Alves is a master artist, art director, production designer, producer and director. The 2020 ADG Awards will return to the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown in the Wilshire Grand Ballroom on Saturday, February 1, 2020. This is the first of four Lifetime Achievement Awards to be announced by the Art Directors Guild.
“The breadth and depth of Joe Alves contribution to the art of visual storytelling can hardly be overstated; he has been involved with helping to create many of the most iconic feature films and television shows of the last 65 years. It is difficult to imagine a more deserving recipient of this honor,” said Mark Worthington, Art Directors Council chair.
Alves’ motion picture career began as a young visual effects Disney animator assigned to the 1956 MGM classic, Forbidden Planet. His confidence and creative growth were nurtured by many challenging television and feature film experiences, a filmography rich in its diversity. Hitchcock’s Torn Curtain, Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, Free Jack and Geronimo are all productions masterfully designed by Alves’ imagination and talents. Alves has designed three features for Steven Spielberg, including Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, for which he earned an Oscar nomination. He made his directing debut with Jaws 3-D. Alves created a memorably derelict Gotham City for John Carpenter’s science-fiction adventure Escape from New York and served as visual consultant on Carpenter’s Starman.
Alves was an innovator and advocate for in-camera practical and visual effects solutions. A 64-year career that transverses analog-to-digital filmmaking, his design leadership on Close Encounters and Jaws are both analog examples of how to walk through the fires of adversity in order to meet the challenges inherent in pre-digital filmmaking.
ADG Lifetime Achievement Awards are presented to outstanding individuals in each of the guild’s four crafts: Art Directors (AD); Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists (STG); Set Designers and Model Makers (SDMM); and Illustrators and Matte Artists (IMA). Previous recipients include AD: Jeannine Oppewall (2019), Norm Newberry (2018), René Lagler (2017); STG: Jim Fiorito (2019) John Moffitt (2018), Albert Obregon (2017), Bill Anderson (2016); SDMMs William F. Matthews (2019), James J. Murakami (2018), Cate Bangs (2017); and IMA: Ed Verreaux(2019), Marty Kline (2018), Joe Musso (2017).
The producer of this year’s ADG Awards (#ADGawards) is production designer Scott Moses, ADG. Online nomination voting will be held November 18–December. 6, 2019. Nominations will be announced December 9, 2019. Online balloting will be held December 18, 2019–January 30, 2020 and winners will be announced at the dinner ceremony on February 1. ADG Awards are open only to productions when made within the U.S. by producer’s signatory to the IATSE agreement. Foreign entries are acceptable without restrictions.
Additional honorees for Lifetime Achievement Awards, Cinematic Imagery Awards and new inductees into the Guild’s Hall of Fame will be announced at a later date.
AP sues 3 Trump administration officials, citing freedom of speech
The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists.
The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech — in this case refusing to change its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order.
"The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government," the AP said in its lawsuit, which names White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
"This targeted attack on the AP's editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment," the news agency said. "This court should remedy it immediately."
In stopping the AP from attending press events at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, or flying on Air Force One in the agency's customary spot, the Trump team directly cited the AP's decision not to fully follow the president's renaming.
"We're going to keep them out until such time as they agree that it's the Gulf of America," Trump said Tuesday.
This week, about 40 news organizations signed onto a letter organized by the White House Correspondents Association, urging the White House to reverse its policy against the AP.
Read More