The 5 Luminous Worlds Created by This Year’s Oscar-Nominated Production Designers

The Oscar-nominated films of 2018 took us places painstakingly real and realms that were gloriously dreamy. Thanks to these professional world-builders, we get to experience a Queen’s court and a King’s homeland that we otherwise would never see. From the African inspired design of Black Panther to a spaceship headed for the moon in First Man, this year’s crop of films gave us breathtaking places and spaces. Here are some of our favorite contributions by the current Oscar-nominated production designers.

First Man‘s Oscar-Nominated VFX Supervisor on Building the Biggest LED Screen Ever

*In the run-up to this Sunday’s Oscars telecast, we’re sharing some of our favorite interviews with nominees. 

Watching Damien Chazelle’s First Man offers the earthbound viewer the chance to realize they don’t have the right stuff finally. For folks of a certain age, becoming an astronaut used to be one of the coolest possible professions, the kind of thing you said you wanted to be when you were little and didn’t know what engineering was.

Oscar Watch: How NASA Footage Inspired the First Man Editor’s Style

The moon landing was welcomed as a shared triumph in American history, but no one had more at stake than the men who traveled there. The mission’s success was as much a feat of will as of science. First Man captures the danger and courage of pioneering space travel in both broad historic and intensely microscopic ways. Editor Tom Cross was inspired by the movie’s ambition of telling a famous story from a human perspective.

Oscar Watch: Justin Hurwitz on Composing the Emotional Toll of Reaching For The Moon in First Man

Oscar and Golden Globe-winning composer Justin Hurwitz crafts scores that feature stirring and beautiful notes and chord progressions, but they are born from human experiences. Hurwitz mines melodies alongside his longtime creative partner, Damien Chazelle, who directs with music in mind. Their first three films together examined the human condition through musicians including a jazz trumpeter (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench), a drum student (Whiplash),

First Man‘s VFX Supervisor on Archival Footage, In-Camera Effects & the Biggest LED Screen Ever

Watching Damien Chazelle’s First Man offers the earthbound viewer the chance to finally realize they don’t have the right stuff. For folks of a certain age, becoming an astronaut used to be one of the coolest possible professions, the kind of thing you said you wanted to be when you were little and didn’t know what engineering was. Or math. Or physics. And, most crucially, you didn’t realize how insanely dangerous it is.

First Man Writer Josh Singer on how Great Moments Require Sacrifice

Screenwriter Josh Singer didn’t realize it at the time, but great things were just around the corner in 2014 when he and director Damien Chazelle first brainstormed their First Man movie about Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic 1969 mission to the moon. “It was actually a pretty low point for me,” Singer recalls. “The Fifth Estate, which I wrote, had come out and not done well at all.

First Man Blasts off in Riveting new Trailer

On September 12, 1962, President John F. Kennedy gave what would be one of the most iconic speeches in American history. Speaking at Rice University just six weeks after the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to reach space, Kennedy delivered his speech in support of NASA’s fledgling Apollo program. In a riveting new trailer for Damien Chazelle’s First Man, Kennedy’s speech is the backdrop for the action on screen,

TIFF 2018: First Man Actor Skyler Bible on Working on Damien Chazelle’s Revelatory Space Drama

First Man represents the first time we’re getting a full-blown biopic about the legendary astronaut Neil Armstrong. Academy-award winning director Damien Chazelle‘s film, scripted by Spotlight and The Post‘s Academy-award winning scribe Josh Singer (based on the book by James R. Hansen) tells the story behind the first manned mission to the moon, with the focus squarely on Armstrong (Ryan Gosling). The Apollo 11 mission that ultimately leads to Armstrong’s iconic first steps on the moon took a decade to prepare,

Early Reviews Hail First Man as a Revelatory Space Drama

There are few sure things in film, as in life, but sometimes the combination of talent and subject matter can get you very close to one. When we heard that Whiplash and La La Land director Damien Chazelle was re-teaming with Ryan Gosling to star as Neil Armstrong in a biopic of the legendary astronaut’s historic journey to the moon, we were as sure as you can be about these things that the film would be good.

This new First Man Trailer Passes the Goosebump Test

Right about now seems like an excellent time for Damien Chazelle’s First Man. The story of Neil Armstrong’s world-changing trip to the moon is the kind of momentous, moving big-picture tale we could use, about a mission that while steeped in the politics of its time, was ultimately one that would touch all of mankind. Starring Ryan Gosling as Armstrong, the second trailer for First Man passes the goosebump test and gives us (shockingly) the first proper biopic about the legendary Armstrong’s very personal,

TIFF 2018 Announces First Slate of Buzzworthy Films

Toronto International Film Festival started rolling out their 2018 lineup today. Although not every TIFF selection is a world premiere, it is often the first time the press and the public get eyes and ears on award hopefuls. The immediate standouts include Beautiful Boy, A Star is Born, First Man, and The Hate U Give.

TIFF boasted,

Ryan Gosling Takes Giant Leap for Mankind in First Man Trailer

Are you feeling the Monday blues and think your job is just a little too stressful? At least you aren’t the first person to ever be sealed into a flammable metal box and launched beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Ryan Gosling channels the pressure Neil Armstrong faced in the first flight to the moon in the First Man trailer.

Gosling, fresh off hugely entertaining films La La Land and Blade Runner 2049,