As is the case with most below-the-line Oscar categories, bigger equals better when it comes to Best Production Design. The more lavish the sets, the more accurate the period detail, the more extravagant the designs, the more likely your film will win an Academy Award. Formerly known as Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, this prize goes to the production designer and set decorator, leaving the poor art directors on the outside looking in; perhaps that accounts for the title change. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Production Design.)
This prize is often paired with Best Costume Design. Most recently, “Poor Things” pulled off this double play (Zsuzsa Mihalek was the winning production designer). It joined 10 other films this century to claim both prizes. Here’s the breakdown with the production designers names in brackets (this piece focuses on production design while we also have a designated costume design item, too).
Clearly, when academy voters admire the design work of a film, they love the design work of a film. They also tend to gravitate towards the same few genres, too. Take a look at the above list of double-design winners. Five are works of fantasy of some kind (“Poor Things,” “Black Panther,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “The Return of the King”), six are period pieces (“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “The Aviator,” “Chicago,” and “Moulin Rouge!”), and two are musicals (“Chicago” and “Moulin Rouge!”).
These genres very much lend themselves to production design as it requires the designers to create entire new worlds. Look at recent winners, too. They all fit into this pattern, whether it is fantasies like “Dune” and “The Shape of Water,” period pieces like “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Mank,” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” or musicals like “La La Land” and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” These genres are loved by production designers and academy voters, alike.
The person that academy voters love most in this category, however, is Cedric Gibbons, who holds the record for most Oscar nominations and most Oscar wins in this category. Out of 35 nominations, he won 11 times. His winning movies were “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” (1930), “The Merry Widow” (1935), “Pride and Prejudice” (1941), “Blossoms in the Dust” (1942), “Gaslight” (1945), “The Yearling” (1947), “Little Women” (1950), “An American in Paris” (1952), “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1953), “Julius Caesar” (1954), and “Somebody Up There Likes Me” (1957).
UPDATED: July 22, 2024
LEADING CONTENDERS
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (Warner Bros.) — Mark Scruton, Lori Mazuer, and David Morison
“Blitz” (Apple Original Films) — Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.) — Patrice Vermette and Zsuzsanna Sipos
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (Warner Bros./Universal) — Colin Gibson and Katie Sharrock
“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures) — Arthur Max and Elli Griff
“Nosferatu” (Focus Features/Universal) — Craig Lathrop
“Wicked” (Universal) — Nathan Crowley
STRONG CONTENDERS
“Conclave” (Focus Features) — Suzie Davies, Roberta Montemale, and Cynthia Sleiter
“Here” (Sony Pictures) — Ashley Lamont, Anna Lynch-Robinson, and Sarah-Jane Prentice
“Joker: Folie à Deux” (Warner Bros.) — Mark Friedberg and Karen O’Hara
“Queer” (TBC) — Stefano Baisi, Lorenzo De Cillis, and Lisa Scoppa
“SNL 1975” (Sony Pictures) — Jess Gonchor and Claudia Bonfe
POSSIBLE CONTENDERS
“Horizon: An American Saga” (Warner Bros.) — Derek R. Hill and Bryan Hurley
“Maria” (TBC) — Guy Hendrix Dyas and Sandro Piccarozzi
“Megalopolis” (Lionsgate) — Beth Mickle, Bradley Rubin, and Lisa K. Sessions
“Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios) — Nora Mendis and Monique Champagne
“The Piano Lesson” (Netflix) — David J. Bomba and Patrick Cassidy
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