Norm Newberry To Receive 2018 ADG Lifetime Achievement Award

Norm Newberry, former ADG Awardee and a 21st century renaissance Production Designer best known for his work on War of the Worlds, The Polar Express and Beowulf, will receive the Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (ADG, IATSE Local 800) at the 22nd Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards. The 2018 ADG Awards, themed “Production Design: Celebrating 100 Years of Imagination,” will be held Saturday, January 27, 2018 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland.

In a career that has spanned five decades, Newberry has done it all. From his work as a Set Designer, Art Director and Production Designer, his creative contributions at Universal Studios span dozens of television shows, and feature films. These include The Hindenburg, Jaws and The Sting, among many others. He also worked as an Art Director on Twentieth Century Fox films including History of the World: Part I and Avatar, which won both an Oscar for Best Production Design and an ADG Award for Best Production Design for a Fantasy Film.

Newberry has pushed the excellence of his craft, first by becoming an expert in design and traditional visual effects and then by re-inventing himself as a “motion capture” Art Director that embraces the cutting edge of digital technology. He has worked on all films which have been created in this way including Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol, and the biggest of them all, Avatar.

In 1987, Newberry was tapped for his "Place Making" film design expertise and began work as Executive Art Director for Universal Creative. He was a lead designer responsible for the planning and construction of Universal Studios' theme parks and back-lot set streets. He continued designing theme parks across the globe including Universal Studios Florida, Universal's Islands of Adventure, Universal Escape and Porto Europa in Wakayama, Japan. He was an in-house consultant on planning projects at Universal Studios Hollywood and on Projects in Barcelona, Paris, London and Singapore. He culminated his fourteen years of experience at Universal Creative as the Creative Director for Universal Studios Japan.

Currently Newberry consults with themed environment design companies, film schools and film studios. Norm continues his active involvement in the Art Directors Guild and the Designers Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

For more information about the ADG and its award show, please visit: www.adg.org