ADG Announces 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients

Scenic artist Bill Anderson, Oscar-nominated matte artist Harrison Ellenshaw, set designer William J. Newmon, II and Emmy and Oscar winning production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein will be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards at the 20th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards being held January 31st at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.   Last year was the first time the ADG presented Lifetime Achievement Awards to each of the guild’s four crafts: Art Directors; Scenic, Title and Graphic Artists; Illustrators and Matte Artists; and Set Designers and Model Makers.

Scenic artist Bill Anderson's backgrounds and murals were featured in films including "Cleopatra" and "The Sound of Music" as well as at various Disney attractions around the world. Anderson started his career at J.C. Backings, painting backgrounds for 20th Century Fox films such as  Fantastic Voyage and Hello, Dolly!. After working at Grosh Scenic Studios, he oversaw scenic design for Disney’s Epcot Center from 1979 to 1982 . In the 1980s, he freelanced on various Disney projects such as Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, Disney’s California Adventure and El Capitan and helped launch Disney’s Tujunga facility.

Matte Artist Harrison Ellenshaw was the first visual effects supervisor to be credited in a film (for 1982’s Tron). Harrison got his start in Walt Disney Studio’s matte department. He later joined George Lucas's effects studio Industrial Light and Magic, where he produced many of the matte visual effects backgrounds for Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, earned his first Oscar nomination for best visual effects in "The Black Hole." In addition to producing visual effects for Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Dick Tracy , Ellenshaw also headed Disney Studio's effects department Buena Vista Visual Effects from 1990-1996, overseeing 63 films. Ellenshaw is a founding board member of the Visual Effects Society (VES). William J. Newmon became the first African-American set designer in Hollywood when he joined IATSE Local 847  in 1975. He later went on to serve three terms as vice president of Local 847 until his retirement in 2000. Newmon started his career at NBC as a stock scenery draftsman, and later was hired by Disney to set design The Apple Dumpling Gang and The Shaggy D.A. . His film credits include Poltergeist, Big Top Pee Wee (1988), and Deep Rising. Newmon’s television credits include Starsky and Hutch, Little House on the Prairie, MacGyver, Murder She Wrote,  7th Heaven and The Wayans Bros.

Patrizia von Brandenstein began her film career in 1972 as a set decorator on The Candidate and subsequently worked as a costume designer on Between the Lines and Saturday Night Fever . Von Brandenstein moved into art direction on Hester Street and Ragtime, for which she shared an Oscar nomination as Art Director. By the early 1980s she was a full-fledged Production Designer. Von Brandenstein won the Oscar for Amadeus and her third Oscar nomination for The Untouchables .  Most recently, she designed the sets and costumes for the Broadway production of The Anarchist, written and directed by David Mamet.

As previously announced, Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne will be the first to receive ADG’s newly created William Cameron Menzies Award for championing classic motion pictures. Four legendary women – Production Designer Carmen Dillon, Production and Costume Designer Patricia Norris, Production Designer and Illustrator Dorothea Holt Redmond and Art Director and Set Designer Dianne Wager - will be inducted into the Art Directors Guild (ADG) Hall of Fame. The Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery Award recipient will be announced in upcoming weeks.

To learn more about the ADG Awards, please visit:  http://www.adg.org/