Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1456917
1 1 from the national executive director Welcome everyone to the 26th Annual Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Awards! Tonight marks the first time since the pandemic began that we are finally able to safely gather together in person to celebrate our members' achievements in narrative design, honoring their work in film, television, streaming, music videos, commercials and animation. Each of our four crafts, Illustration & Matte Artists; Set Design & Model Makers; Scenic, Title & Graphic Artists; and Art Direction & Production Design, have selected longtime, esteemed members to receive our Lifetime Achievement Awards. Those recipients are Production Designer Ida Random (AD), Graphic Designers Michael and Denise Okuda (STG), Set Designer/Art Director Ann Harris (SDMM) and Concept Illustrator/Storyboard Artist Donna Cline (IMA), who have each earned the respect of their peers and so we celebrate their legacies. We are also thrilled to induct the Oscar-nominated Production Designer Polly Platt and the Academy Award-winning Production Designer William A. Horning into the ADG Hall of Fame. Polly, the trailblazing and multi-talented force of nature, whose career spanned 30 years, is known for iconic shows such as The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment and A Star Is Born, to name just three. William, who became MGM's Supervising Art Director after the retirement of Cedric Gibbons, was nominated for an Oscar multiple times (North by Northwest, for example) and won, posthumously, twice for Gigi and Ben-Hur. We in turn are honored to present our Cinematic Imagery Award to Academy Award- and Palm D'Or-winning writer/director Jane Campion (The Piano and The Power of the Dog), the first woman to be nominated twice for Best Picture. We also bestow our William Cameron Menzies Award to the Academy Award-nominated director Denis Villeneuve (Dune and Arrival), who is well known for incorporating the power of production design in his cinematic expression. This year marks the first time that we have given commercials and music videos their own separate categories, and all I can say is, it's about time!! Let us all raise a glass and make a toast to the fortune we have all been bestowed with to work creatively in this fabulous industry and to be blessed to be members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the organization which has tirelessly fought and negotiated for our rights and dignity as artists, our wages and benefits, and our terms and conditions of employment. Congratulations to our nominees, honorees and everyone here. Chuck Parker National Executive Director Art Directors Guild, IATSE Local 800 chuck parker