Art Director's Guild Nominations Stay Focused on the Best Picture Conversation

The Art Director's Guild have named the most well designed and carefully decorated movies of the year. How well do you think they did in terms of Best? This is as good a time as any to tell you that we've begun our annual Film Bitch Awards, now in their (gulp) 15th year so you can see my preferred ballot there.

The guild which represents 2300 industry people like Production Designers, Art Directors, Set Designers, Model Makers and Artists of various kinds (Scenic, Title, Matte, etcetera) voted for the following 15 films, most of which are firmly entrenched in the Best Picture discussion indicated that they didn't watch too many screeners before voting. 

Did Inherent Vice's elaborate last supper joke win it this nomination? Or was it the whorehouse?

Period Film
INHERENT VICE - David Crank
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL -Adam Stockhausen
THE IMITATION GAME -Maria Djurkovic 
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING -John Paul Kelly
UNBROKEN - Jon Hutman 

But what about?: Mr Turner which is more challenging and fascinating and epic in its production scope than most of these nominees; The Homesman which is more memorably designed than some of these; I probably like Unbroken more than a lot of critics but I'm not sure it's more worthy of a WW II recreation notice here than, say, Fury? In short, they've been listening to the Best Picture conversation.

More Nominations & Commentary after the jump

I'm Still Nervous About: Grand Budapest Hotel which is obviously the most amazing entry among these but it could just as easily been slipped into the fantasy category. Incredibly, as I've often mentioned, no Wes Anderson film has ever been nominated in this category at the Oscars. We all hope this is the year but we've been disappointed many times before with the Academy's Art Direction branch and their resistance to his always amazingly art directed films. Of the other nominees The Imitation Game is fairly impressive in this category but then Maria Djurkovic often does great work (see also: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Hours)

Fantasy & Contemporary & TV Nominees after the jump...

Fantasy Film
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER - Peter Wenham
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES -James Chinlund 
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY -Charles Wood
INTERSTELLAR Nathan Crowley
INTO THE WOODS - Dennis Gassner 

Egregious Snub: No Snowpiercer? THIS IS NOT OKAY. 

Omissions: At long last they've left Middle Earth behind. No Hobbits. Hurrah. This isn't the Emmys, you know. You can't just keep giving it to the same things all the time.  Overall this is a pretty solid group though I'm a little surprised that they didn't embrace Maleficent and not surprised but wonder if they should have embraced Noah. That Ark was pretty cool. 

Cheers & Confusion: James Chinlund's ape forest and post-ape decaying cities. We spoke to him about his epic work on this film we were so impressed. On a less happily ever after note, I must admit that I feel some ambivalence and confusion about Dennis Gassner's work on Into the Woods. I don't think the film looks great (though it does sound great) -- was it just the wrong choice of color palette or under lighting? -- which is tremendously puzzling given that Gassner is one of our most incredible designers. His filmography is just filled to the brim with visual triumphs.

Contemporary Film
AMERICAN SNIPER Production Designers: James J Murakami, Charisse Cardenas
BIRDMAN Kevin Thompson
FOXCATCHER Jess Gonchor
GONE GIRL Donald Graham Burt
NIGHTCRAWLER Kevin Kavanaugh

Egregious Lack of Imagination Epidemic: This is the category where they most often show their Best Picture blinders ignoring features which are very impressively designed but have no conceivably way in to a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. I'm not sure how you can watch something like Under the Skin or The Babadook or Begin Again or Only Lovers Left Alive or A Most Violent Year or Neighbors and find their production design less impressive than, say, American Sniper or Nightcrawler (neither of which give their designers all that much to do beyond the norm no matter the quality of the film in question)

Maybe they didn't watch that many movies this year? Keeping it in the Best Picture family!

What do you think of their nominees? And mine? 

TELEVISION NOMINATIONS IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

One-Hour Period or Fantasy Single-Camera Television Series

GAME OF THRONES: “The Laws of Gods and Men,” “The Mountain and the Viper”
Production Designer: DEBORAH RILEY

MAD MEN: “Time Zones”
Production Designer: DAN BISHOP

GOTHAM: “Pilot,” "Selina Kyle,” “Arkham”
Production Designer: DOUG KRANER

THE KNICK: “Method and Madness,” “Working Late a Lot”
Production Designer: HOWARD CUMMINGS

BOARDWALK EMPIRE: “Golden Days for Boys and Girls”
Production Designer: BILL GROOM


One-Hour Contemporary Single-Camera Television Series

HOMELAND: “The Drone Queen”
Production Designer: JOHN D. KRETSCHMER

HOUSE OF CARDS: “Chapter 18”
Production Designer: STEVE ARNOLD

JUSTIFIED: “Murder Of Crowes,” “Wrong Roads,” “The Toll”
Production Designer: DAVE BLASS

THE NEWSROOM: “Boston,” “Main Justice,” “Contempt”
Production Designer: KAREN STEWARD

TRUE DETECTIVE: “The Locked Room,” “Form and Void”
Production Designer: ALEX DiGERLANDO


Television Movie or Mini-Series

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW: “Massacres and Matinees”
Production Designer: MARK WORTHINGTON

COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY: “Unafraid of the Dark” 
Production Designer: SETH REED

FARGO: “The Crocodiles Dilemma”
Production Designer: JOHN BLACKIE

HOUDINI: “Part I,” “Part II”
Production Designer: PATRIZIA VON BRANDENSTEIN

SHERLOCK: “His Last Vow”
Production Designer: ARWEL W. JONES 


Half Hour Single-Camera Television Series

CALIFORNICATION: “Faith, Hope, Love,” “Like Father Like Son,” “Kickoff”
Production Designer: RAY YAMAGATA

HOUSE OF LIES: “Wreckage,” “Middlegame,” “Zha- Moreng”
Production Designer: RAY YAMAGATA

MODERN FAMILY: “Halloween 3: Awesomeland,” “Marco Polo,” “Won’t You Be Our Neighbor”
Production Designer: CLAIRE BENNETT

SILICON VALLEY: “Articles of Incorporation,” “Signaling Risk,” “Optimal Tip-To-Tip Efficiency”
Production Designer: RICHARD TOYON

VEEP: “Clovis,” “Special Relationship,” “Debate”
Production Designer: JAMES GLOSTER


Multi-Camera Television Series

HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER: “How Your Mother Met Me”
Production Designer: STEPHAN OLSON

MIKE & MOLLY: “Mike & Molly’s Excellent Adventure,” “The Dice Lady Cometh”
Production Designer: JOHN SHAFFNER

THE BIG BANG THEORY: “The Locomotive Manipulation,” “The Convention Conundrum,” “The Status Quo Combustion”
Production Designer: JOHN SHAFFNER:

THE MILLERS: “You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings, Man,” “Con-Troversy,” “Papa Was a Rolling Bone”
Production Designer: GLENDA ROVELLO

UNDATABLE: “Pilot”
Production Designer: CABOT McMULLEN


Awards or Event Special

86th ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS
Production Designer: DEREK McLANE

PETER PAN LIVE!
Production Designer: DEREK McLANE

SUPER BOWL XLVIII HALFTIME SHOW: STARRING BRUNO MARS
Production Designer: BRUCE RODGERS

THE AMERICAN MUSIC AWARDS 2014
Production Designer: JOE STEWART

THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED AMERICA: A GRAMMY SALUTE TO THE BEATLES
Production Designer: MATTHEW RUSSELL 

THE 66th PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS
Production Designer: KEITH IAN RAYWOOD


Short Format: WebSeries, Music Video or Commercial

APPLE: “Perspective”
Production Designer: SEAN HARGREAVES

COLDPLAY: “Magic”
Production Designer: EMMA FAIRLEY

IKEA: “Carousel”
Production Designer: RICHARD LASSALLE

KATY PERRY: “Dark Horse”
Production Designer: JEREMY REED

SIMPSON’S MARATHON
Production Designer: ZACH MATHEWS


Variety, Competition, Reality, or Game Show Series

KEY & PEELE: “Halloween Episode,” “Alien Imposters”
Production Designer: GARY KORDAN

PORTLANDIA: “Celery”
Production Designer: TYLER B. ROBINSON

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: “Louis C. K. with Sam Smith,” “Anna Kendrick with Pharrell Williams,” “Chris Rock with Prince”
Production Designers: KEITH IAN RAYWOOD, EUGENE LEE, AKIRA YOSHIMURA, N. JOSEPH DeTULLIO

THE TONIGHT SHOW STARRING JIMMY FALLON: “1,” “45,” “56”
Production Designers: EUGENE LEE, PETER BARAN

THE VOICE: “Blind Auditions Premiere”
Production Designers: JAMES PEARSE CONNELLY, ANTON GOSS 

Comments

[3rtful]

Your hatred of INHERENT VICE is officially funny. Just because Brolin is the only element in the movie you deem worthy of praise does not mean everything else was undesirable.

[NATHANIEL R]

/3RTFUL -- i didn't say one negative thing about it. You always jump to conclusions.

[Peggy Sue]

My train of thought while reading this: "I'll go balistic if Budapest Hotel doesn't win Best Production Design. Wait! They prefered Lincoln to Anna Karenina. We're doomed".

[Bhuray]

Whenever I see 3rtful's name come up, my mind always rushes to replace the 3 at the beginning of his name with "hu."

[Glenn]

My first reaction was "okay, I guess..." which seems to be a theme this year.

[Matt]

I thought Monuments Men was going to sneak in, but it's early year release didn't help.

[Edward L.]

Hi Nathaniel, The link to your ballot was broken when I tried it just now. Is it just me? I'd love to read your choices!

[Rafael]

I think they nominated good movies, but I think we have seen more daring, different, interesting and unforgettable art direction in other movies this year. However, it seems that they can't nominate movies that are not Oscar contenders. That's a shame.

[Jonathan]

"A Most Violent Year" would fall under Period, so that title doesn't quite advance your argument under the Contemporary section. But point taken.

[NATHANIEL R]

Jonathan -- actually it wouldn't necessarily. Recent periods sometimes show up in contemporary for the ADG. I'm not sure why. Foxcatcher, like A Most Violent Year, takes place in the 1980s and as in the contemporary section.

[Jonathan]

InContention actually informed me that they've instituted a new rule specifying that a candidate for the Contemporary category must take place either 20 years before or 20 years after the current date. Of course, this would disqualify "Foxcatcher," which they nevertheless nominated, so clearly they're willing to violate their own rules. But I feel "A Most Violent Year" would be a tougher case to make, as it looks more traditionally "period" than Miller's film.

[NATHANIEL R]

thanks for the info.

[Mark The First]

"Okay, I guess..." is right. Nothing daring or interesting here. Just more rubber-stamping for bland FYC movies.

How anyone considers the art direction for Into The Woods noteworthy is baffling to me. It was perhaps the single weakest element of the film by a mile. Even with the location in the title, they still managed to make it look boring, murky and uninspired. Where's Rick Heinrichs when you need him?

Then again, when you can easily replace at least three of the nominees in each category, you know a nominating committee is not really trying.