Film sets possess the power to drop an audience into literally any reality. Whether designed to transport viewers thousands of years into the past or place them in an actuality where the dead can be reborn, a film’s scenery is a big part of making its fictional tale believable. Often, those alluring interiors, intricate exteriors and sweeping landscapes also ignite inspiration.
Ahead of the 98th Academy Awards on 15 March, we spoke with 2026’s production design nominees for insight into their world-building processes and soulful sets. The films recognised in the category include Sinners, Frankenstein, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, and One Battle After Another. No matter who takes home the Oscar, one thing’s certain: Each film proves production design is one marvelous piece of the movie magic puzzle.
Sinners
Director Ryan Coogler’s vampire horror film Sinners charts the journey of twin brothers (both played by Michael B Jordan) as they return home to Mississippi to open a juke joint – and face an evil threat to their community. In building the fantasy world that’s rooted in an American Jim Crow South reality, production designer Hannah Beachler aimed to capture the time period with historic accuracy but also ‘push aspects of those environments into sort of an artistic world that maybe just lives in a place where the supernatural is seen and felt’, says Beachler.
'This world, while it looks like our reality, is a place where the supernatural and magic exists'
Hannah Beachler, production designer, Sinners
From the old saw mill turned juke joint to the church and characters’ homes, everything was built in Louisiana where the landscapes, including sugarcane fields, best served the story. The design team, including set decorator Monique Champagne, played with architectural lines and recycled decor across sets to heighten the universe, while keeping it grounded. They also used paint colours and finishes in unexpected ways: ‘We painted shadows on the structures where shadows would naturally fall to create depth and a sense that this world, while it looks like our reality, is a place where the supernatural and magic exists,’ says Beachler.
Frankenstein
Fittingly, a mix of detailed sets and breathtaking locations were invented and stitched together for director Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein. The film’s retelling of novelist Mary Shelley’s classic tale examines what it means to be a human and a monster through tortured scientist Victor Frankenstein’s (Oscar Isaac) creation of the Creature (Jacob Elordi). For the mythological realm, ‘Guillermo wanted something operatic and very hand-crafted with a carefully coded colour palette,’ says production designer Tamara Deverell, who collaborated with set decorator Shane Vieau. ‘My approach to the overall design was more theatrical than I had ever done, with an emphasis on sculpted elements and textured and layered finishes on all the sets,' Deverell adds.
'My approach to the overall design was more theatrical than I had ever done'
Tamara Deverell, production designer, Frankenstein
Perhaps the most pivotal set is Frankenstein’s lab, a patina-enveloped abandoned water tower where circular motifs, like a massive window and carved Medusa head, symbolize the circle of life. Another major set is the Arctic exploration ship, which was fully built at a studio rather than created with visual effects. In contrast, Frankenstein’s ancestral estate introduces lavish interiors drenched in marble and gold. Multiple grand locations in England and Scotland were pieced together to portray the palatial property, including Wilton House, Burghley House, Gosford House, and Dunecht House. ‘Each set was a journey of compelling visual references, in-depth research, and the tenacity of Guillermo’s vision,’ says Deverell. ‘I am proud to bring his stories to life!’
Hamnet
A moving portrayal of familial love and loss, Hamnet depicts the true tragedy that inspired William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. For the Chloé Zhao-directed film, production designer Fiona Crombie and set decorator Alice Felton reshaped Tudor-era settings into backdrops that offer an unforgettable performance of their own. Namely, the team built a version of London’s Globe Theatre that’s much more intimate and simpler than its great, ornate real-life counterpart. Reminiscent of the inside of a tree, the venue clad in reclaimed wood features a dressing room on the stage level, rather than perched above the stage, so that William (Paul Mescal) can better connect with his wife, Agnes, (Jessie Buckley) in the audience.
‘You research, you understand, and then you extract what you need and bend it,’ Crombie told Wallpaper* in 2025 of forgoing a meticulous recreation of the theatre circa the late 1500s. 'It’s to serve the story – to serve how you want your audience to feel.’
Beyond the theatre, the Shakespeare family’s English countryside home and its surrounding forest play with tension and freedom. The residence – with soft whitewashed walls, prominent timber beams and unyielding geometric forms – boxes the poet and his wife in. In the forest, Agnes embraces a liberating, deep connection to nature.
Marty Supreme
Set in 1950s New York, Marty Supreme follows a table tennis prodigy (Timothée Chalamet) who is determined to be recognised as the greatest player in the world. Production designer Jack Fisk, along with set decorator Adam Willis, set out ‘to create an immersive world that felt completely real’, says Fisk of reviving the bygone era for the Josh Safdie-directed film. ‘The casting was an early clue to how honest Josh wanted the film to be, and I tried to support that with a natural, almost documentary approach.’
The design team gave the Lower East Side’s Orchard Street a major exterior makeover to bring the tenement buildings and shops – including a shoe and a pet store – back in time. To portray Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary) and Kay Stone’s (Gwyneth Paltrow) extravagant Upper East Side residence, the team rented out a reportedly $38-million mansion across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. An array of other period-specific sites were moulded for the film, including a table tennis parlour, a rural farmhouse, a Broadway theatre and a London hotel.
‘I’m most proud of the crew – decorators, art directors, painters, carpenters, and graphic artists – working in a city of eight million people, rolling New York back 75 years while the street life continued all around us,’ says Fisk. ‘Our work is at its best when it goes unnoticed.’
‘Our work is at its best when it goes unnoticed’
Jack Fisk, production designer, Marty Supreme
One Battle After Another
One Battle After Another urgently unfolds across distinct California settings rarely seen on screen. The action thriller from director Paul Thomas Anderson tails a paranoid revolutionary (Leonardo DiCaprio) as he launches into a desperate hunt to find his daughter (Chase Infiniti) when she goes missing. ‘The directive was really to scout as much as possible and gather all these pieces that became a visual tapestry, grounding these characters in the reality of their circumstances,’ production designer Florencia Martin told The Credits of exploring an unfamiliar side of the Golden State.
In California’s northern redwoods, the design team, also led by set decorator Anthony Carlino, devised an off-grid home with a tunnel to an outhouse. Outside of Santa Barbara at La Purísima Mission State Historic Park, they found the foundation for their women’s group compound. Near the Tijuana border, they recreated detention camps. Filming even expanded to El Paso, Texas, where Benicio Del Toro’s character’s apartment was built on the empty floor above of a real perfume shop. After pulling the viewer through escape hatches, secret society lairs and explosions, the movie climaxes with a car chase sequence in the east San Diego desert. Referred to by the team as the ‘River of Hills,’ the roads let the race play out like a heart-pounding roller coaster ride.