Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1456917
9 from the adg council chair Welcome to the 26th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards banquet —it's wonderful to be back together again in person for this special evening! Though still grappling with the pandemic, we are now seeing hopeful signs that we are reaching a place of increasing normality: tonight, is one of those signs. Our membership has endured great hardship in the last two years with the effective shutdown of our industry early in the pandemic. Fortunately, we have seen that industry rebound in spectacular fashion to levels of production which now exceed those prior to the advent of COVID-19. This rebirth was and is made possible through the hard work and commitment of the members of our Guild and our kin across the entire IATSE family. This experience has proven, above all else, that we are stronger together! I'd like to thank the Awards Committee and our new Chair and Producer, Michael Allen Glover, and the indefatigable Debbie Patton, our Guild's staff member in charge of the awards, who has shouldered the daunting and complex task of bringing us back together—in person—as a Guild. If there is a good thing, we learned from the pandemic it is that holding our awards ceremony as an online virtual event allows those Guild members who could not otherwise participate to attend the event, so we have retained this online component to assure that everyone who wants to experience the awards can do so. This evening, we welcome two current giants of the art of cinema to be recognized with two of our highest honors. Director and writer Denis Villeneuve, whose visionary adaptation of Frank Herbert's Dune has set a new standard for visual storytelling in science fiction, will receive the Guild's William Cameron Menzies Award. Director, writer and producer Jane Campion, whose works includes some of the most original and beautifully crafted films of the last 30 years—the startling, savage and visually ravishing The Power of the Dog being the most recent example—will receive the Cinematic Imagery Award. Five legendary members of this Guild will receive our Lifetime Achievement Award this evening. Graphic Artists and general polymaths, Michael and Denise Okuda, whose pioneering work on the user interface and graphic design for the Star Trek franchise have set the standard by which all such design is now judged; Set Designer Ann Harris, whose drawings span the breadth of our industry from preeminent television such as Ally McBeal and Weeds to the iconic films Point Break, The Fugitive and The Last Samurai; Illustrator Donna Cline (with whom I worked on the film Tombstone), a brilliant storyboard artist on a range of films from Total Recall to Congo, also brought her considerable skills as a trained medical illustrator to projects such as House and Bones; and Production Designer Ida Random—a pioneering figure in the industry, who has collaborated with some of the most iconic directors of our time on a breathtaking range of films: the seminal Western Silverado, post-apocalyptic The Postman, action thriller Fast & Furious and of course, Rain Man—for which she received an Oscar nomination. As we come together again to celebrate our industry and our crafts, I wish you and your family good health and good fortunes in the coming year. Mark Worthington AD Council Chair Art Directors Guild mark worthington