Two-time Academy Award® winning and four-time nominated Production Designer and Art Director Rick Carter will receive the Art Directors Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award, at the Guild’s 18th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards on February 8, 2014 at the black-tie ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The announcement came today from John Shaffner, ADG Council Chairman and ADG Awards Producers Raf Lydon and Dave Blass.
“Rick Carter’s work as a Production Designer is among the best in the history of our profession. He personifies all the qualities of an artist and is the Guild’s perfect choice this year to join the ranks of our Lifetime Achievers,” says Shaffner.
Carter’s distinguished work has garnered him two Oscar® wins— for “Lincoln” (shared with Jim Erikson, 2013) and for “Avatar” (shared with Robert Stromberg, 2010). He also received two Oscar® nominations with “Forest Gump” (1994) and “War Horse” (2011). He received the Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Award for “Avatar” in 2010, the BAFTA Film Award for Best Production Design for “Avatar,” the Saturn Award for Best Production Design for “Avatar,” the Satellite Award for Best Art Direction & Production Design for “Lincoln” and the Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Production Design for “Avatar,” among many other nominations.
Carter’s first experience in Production Design was in 1976 on the set of “Bound for Glory.” He has had a long association with Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis, working on films such as “The Goonies” (1985), the “Back to the Future” trilogy franchise, the “Jurassic Park” franchise, “Amistad” (1997), “Cast Away” (2000), “The Polar Express” (2004), and “War of the Worlds” (2005). Carter graduated UCSC in 1974 with a B.A. in Art.
“Production Designers create everything that audiences don’t think about when they watch a movie. Our job is to create the spirit of the place,” Carter said.
His other credits include: “Death Becomes Her” (1992), “What Lies Beneath” (2000), “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (2001), “Munich” (2005) and “Sucker Punch” (2011). He is currently working on “Jurassic Park IV.”
Nominations for this year’s ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards will be announced on January 9, 2014. The ADG will present winners in ten competitive categories for theatrical films, television productions, commercials and music videos on February 8, 2014. A recipient for the Guild’s Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award and three new inductees into its Hall of Fame will be announced in the near future.
Previous recipients of the ADG Lifetime Achievement Award are Production Designers Ken Adam, Robert Boyle, Albert Brenner, Henry Bumstead, Roy Christopher, Stuart Craig, Bill Creber, John Mansbridge, Terence Marsh, Harold Michelson, Jan Scott, Paul Sylbert, Dean Tavoularis, Tony Walton, and Herman Zimmerman.
ADG Awards are open only to productions, when made within the U.S., by producers signatory to the IATSE agreement. Foreign entries are acceptable without restrictions.
Media sponsors for the ADG Awards are The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, and SHOOT.
About the Art Directors Guild
The Art Directors Guild (IATSE Local 800) represents nearly 2,000 members who work throughout the United States, Canada and the rest of the world in film, television and theater as Production Designers, Art Directors, and Assistant Art Directors; Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists; Illustrators and Matte Artists; and Set Designers and Model Makers. Established in 1937, ADG’s ongoing activities include a Film Society; an annual Awards Banquet, a creative/technology community (5D: The Future of Immersive Design) and Membership Directory; a bimonthly craft magazine (Perspective); and extensive technology-training programs, creative workshops and craft and art exhibitions. The Guild’s Online Directory/Website Resource is at <a hr
