On a Saturday evening in Los Angeles, the Art Directors Guild gathered for its 30th annual ceremony to honor the invisible architects of cinema and television — those who build the worlds audiences inhabit without ever seeing the builders. With Netflix's Frankenstein and Warner Bros' One Battle After Another claiming top film honors, the guild has once again cast its long shadow over the Academy Awards, a shadow made credible by two decades of predictive accuracy. Beyond the competitive prizes, the night paused to remember those whose hands shaped the visual grammar of beloved films, and to ce
Art Directors Guild Awards 2026: Frankenstein, One Battle After Another Win Top Honors
The ADG's winner has gone on to win the Oscar in twenty of twenty-nine years.
Mark
Why does the Art Directors Guild Awards matter so much to the Oscar conversation?
Mimi
Because the track record is almost eerie. In twenty-nine years of handing out these awards, the ADG's winner in period, contemporary, or fantasy film has gone on to win the Oscar in twenty of those years. That's a predictive power most awards shows can't touch.
Luke
But that's worth unpacking a bit. Are we saying the ADG is predicting the Oscar, or are the same films that impress production designers also impressing the Academy? There's a difference.
Mimi
Fair point. It's probably both. The ADG voters and Oscar voters are looking at similar work and valuing similar things. But the timing matters too—the ADG comes first, so it does seem to signal what's coming.
Mark
So Frankenstein and One Battle After Another are now the films to watch in the production design race?
Mimi
They're certainly in the conversation. They beat out some strong competition. Kasra Farahani's win for Fantastic Four was actually a bit of a surprise over Wicked: For Good, which tells you something about how the voters were thinking.
Luke
Though we should note that the ADG categories don't map perfectly onto the Oscar categories. The Academy's Best Picture nominees also include Sinners, Hamnet, and Marty Supreme, whose designers will be competing too. So it's not a perfect predictor.
Mark
What stood out on the television side?
Mimi
Apple TV had a really strong night. Three wins across different categories—Severance, The Studio, Palm Royale. And Saturday Night Live won twice, which makes sense given how much production design goes into that show.
Luke
Though it's worth noting that SNL wins are a bit different from narrative television. The design work is real, but it's operating in a different context.
Mark
What about the lifetime honors? Those felt like they were celebrating some real history.
Mimi
Absolutely. Bo Welch's career alone—four Oscar nominations, work on everything from Beetlejuice to Batman Returns to Edward Scissorhands. And Thomas E. Sanders, who died in 2017, getting inducted posthumously. His work with Guillermo del Toro on Crimson Peak is the kind of production design that defines a film.
Luke
The in memoriam segment was long this year. Twelve names. That's a reminder that this is a community that's aging, and we're losing people who shaped how films look.
Il Polso
- The ADG's 30-year track record of predicting Oscar winners in 20 of 29 years means Saturday's results landed with the weight of prophecy, not mere ceremony.
- Frankenstein's Tamara Deverell and One Battle After Another's Florencia Martin now enter the Oscar race as frontrunners, intensifying competition against designers behind Sinners, Hamnet, and Marty Supreme.
- A surprise upset in the fantasy category saw Kasra Farahani's Fantastic Four: First Steps edge out Avatar: Fire and Ash and Wicked: For Good, reshuffling expectations.
- Apple TV dominated television, with The Studio, Severance, and Palm Royale each claiming prizes, while SNL's design team won twice in a single night.
- Lifetime honors brought both celebration and grief — Bo Welch's legendary career was feted by Barry Sonnenfeld, while Thomas E. Sanders was inducted posthumously, remembered for gothic masterworks and a life cut short at sixty-three.
- The evening closed with an in memoriam tribute, grounding the industry's forward momentum in the quiet weight of those no longer present to build new worlds.
On a Saturday evening in Los Angeles, the Art Directors Guild gathered for its 30th annual ceremony to honor the invisible architects of cinema and television — those who build the worlds audiences inhabit without ever seeing the builders. With Netflix's Frankenstein and Warner Bros' One Battle After Another claiming top film honors, the guild has once again cast its long shadow over the Academy Awards, a shadow made credible by two decades of predictive accuracy. Beyond the competitive prizes, the night paused to remember those whose hands shaped the visual grammar of beloved films, and to celebrate living legends whose careers remind us that great storytelling is always, at its root, an act of world-making.
The Art Directors Guild held its 30th annual awards Saturday night at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, and the results carry immediate consequence for the Oscar race now just two weeks away. Netflix's Frankenstein, with production designer Tamara Deverell, and Warner Bros' One Battle After Another, designed by Florencia Martin, won the period and contemporary film categories respectively — placing both squarely among the frontrunners for Best Production Design alongside the designers behind Sinners, Hamnet, and Marty Supreme.
The guild's predictive power is well established: since 1996, an ADG film winner has gone on to claim the Oscar in twenty of twenty-nine years. Last year's win for Wicked's Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales, followed by their Oscar two weeks later, only reinforced the pattern. A notable surprise came in the fantasy category, where Kasra Farahani's work on The Fantastic Four: First Steps edged out Avatar: Fire and Ash and Wicked: For Good. The animated prize went to KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix's most-watched film ever, which has been sweeping awards across multiple guilds in recent weeks.
Television honors were spread broadly, with Apple TV claiming three prizes — Julie Berghoff for The Studio, Jeremy Hindle for Severance, and Jon Carlos for Palm Royale. Luke Hull won the fantasy series award for Andor, accepting remotely from the United Kingdom. SNL's design team won twice, for a Lady Gaga-hosted episode and for the 50th anniversary special.
Special honors added depth to the evening. Director Jon M. Chu, whose Wicked films have earned over 1.28 billion dollars worldwide, received the Cinematic Imagery Award. California Representative Laura Friedman accepted the inaugural President's Award for her legislative work supporting entertainment industry unions and tax incentives.
Four Lifetime Achievement Awards recognized careers spanning decades. Set designer Jann Engel, a three-time ADG winner, was honored alongside scenic artist Stephen McNally and storyboard artist Tom Southwell, whose credits range from Blade Runner to Mission: Impossible. Production designer Thomas E. Sanders — a two-time Oscar nominee for Saving Private Ryan and Bram Stoker's Dracula, and beloved collaborator of Guillermo del Toro on Crimson Peak — was inducted posthumously into the ADG Hall of Fame, having died of cancer in 2017. Bo Welch, a four-time Oscar nominee whose filmography includes Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Men in Black, received his career honor from longtime collaborator Barry Sonnenfeld.
The ceremony closed with an in memoriam segment, honoring the designers, artists, and craftspeople lost over the past year — a quiet reminder that the worlds built on screen outlast the hands that built them.
The Art Directors Guild handed out its 30th annual awards on Saturday night at the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, and the evening's winners are already being watched as harbingers of what the Academy might choose in two weeks. Netflix's Frankenstein, with production designer Tamara Deverell, and Warner Bros' One Battle After Another, designed by Florencia Martin, took the top film honors in the period and contemporary categories respectively. Both films are now positioned as frontrunners in the Oscar race for Best Production Design, where they will compete alongside the designers behind Best Picture nominees Sinners, Hamnet, and Marty Supreme.
The predictive power of the ADG Awards runs deep. Since the guild began handing out these honors in 1996, one of its winners in the period, contemporary, or fantasy film categories has gone on to win the Academy Award in twenty of the past twenty-nine years—a track record that lends real weight to Saturday's selections. Last year, when production designer Nathan Crowley and set decorator Lee Sandales won the ADG for Wicked, they collected the Oscar two weeks later, reinforcing the pattern.
Kasra Farahani's win for Disney and Marvel's The Fantastic Four: First Steps in the fantasy feature category came as something of a surprise, edging out competition that included Avatar: Fire and Ash and Wicked: For Good. The evening opened with the animated feature prize, which went to KPop Demon Hunters, designed by Mingjue Helen Chen and Dave Bleich. Netflix's most-watched film of all time has been on an awards roll, having swept the Annie Awards the previous Saturday before collecting a VES Award and an Eddie Award earlier in the week.
Television design was well represented throughout the night. Three Apple TV series claimed victories: Julie Berghoff won for the half-hour comedy The Studio, Jeremy Hindle took the one-hour contemporary prize for Severance, and Jon Carlos won the period category for Palm Royale. Luke Hull won the one-hour fantasy series award for Disney Plus's now-concluded Andor, though he was unable to attend the ceremony while working in the United Kingdom. Hulu's single-season Mid-Century Modern took the multi-camera series prize, with Glenda Rovello as production designer. The production designers behind NBC's Saturday Night Live—Akira Yoshimura, Keith Ian Raywood, N. Joseph De Tullio, and Andrea Purcigliott—won twice, for both a Lady Gaga-hosted episode and for SNL 50: The Anniversary Special. Matthew Flood Ferguson won the television movie or limited series category for Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
The guild also distributed several special honors. Jon M. Chu, director of the Wicked films, which have grossed more than 1.28 billion dollars worldwide, accepted the Cinematic Imagery Award from Awkwafina, his star from Crazy Rich Asians. Before the Wicked blockbusters, Chu directed In the Heights, the Justin Bieber documentary Never Say Never, Jem and the Holograms, and sequels to Now You See Me, G.I. Joe, and Step Up. He is currently working on Hot Wheels, a live-action adaptation of Mattel's toy car line. Representative Laura Friedman of California, a Democrat and former producer who worked at HBO and Paramount before entering the California Assembly and later succeeding Adam Schiff in Congress, received the inaugural President's Award for her advocacy of union jobs and state and federal tax incentives for the entertainment industry.
Four Lifetime Achievement Awards recognized exceptional careers. Set designer and art director Jann Engel, a three-time ADG winner for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Avengers: Endgame, and a Call of Duty advertisement, received one of the honors. Her credits span numerous superhero films including Captain Marvel and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Production designer Thomas E. Sanders, a two-time Oscar nominee for Saving Private Ryan and Bram Stoker's Dracula who also worked on Braveheart, was inducted posthumously into the ADG Hall of Fame. Sanders died of cancer in 2017 at age sixty-three. His final project was Justin Lin's Star Trek Beyond in 2015, and among his proudest achievements was his collaboration with Guillermo del Toro on the period horror film Crimson Peak, whose gothic and richly textured production design defined the film's tone. Barry Sonnenfeld presented the career honor to production designer Bo Welch, a four-time Oscar nominee for Men in Black, The Birdcage, A Little Princess, and The Color Purple, and a two-time Emmy nominee whose filmography includes Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Wild Wild West, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Schmigadoon! Scenic artist Stephen McNally, whose resume includes Venom and its sequel, Steve Jobs, Twisted, What Dreams May Come, and Flubber, along with television work on Trauma and Parenthood, also received a lifetime honor, presented by his colleague and fellow painter James Shefik. Storyboard artist and production designer Tom Southwell received the final tribute, his decades-spanning career ranging from Blade Runner, The Muppet Movie, Romancing the Stone, and The Goonies to Mission: Impossible, X-Men, and Star Trek: Nemesis.
The ceremony, hosted by comedian and voice-over specialist Ron Funches, concluded with an in memoriam segment honoring industry professionals lost over the past year, including Vance Lorenzini, Stuart Craig, Scott Herbertson, Noele King, E. Jay Krause, Julia Levine, Dean Mitzner, Stephen Runninger, Frankie Smith, Jonathan Velasco, Les Dilley, and Barbara Hall.
Citazioni salienti
Jon M. Chu accepted the Cinematic Imagery Award, having directed the Wicked films which grossed more than 1.28 billion dollars worldwide— Art Directors Guild Awards ceremony
Representative Laura Friedman received the inaugural President's Award for her advocacy of union jobs and state and federal tax incentives for the entertainment industry— Art Directors Guild Awards ceremony
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