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Hannah Beachler

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Hannah Beachler
Alma materUniversity of Cincinnati, Wright State University
OccupationProduction designer
Websitewww.hannahbeachlerpd.com Edit this at Wikidata

Hannah Beachler (/biːklər/) is an American production designer. The first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Production Design, she is known for her Afrofuturist design direction of Marvel Studios film series Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.[1] Beachler has been involved in numerous projects directed by Beyoncé, including Lemonade and Black Is King.[2]

She also worked on the 2015 Rocky film Creed,[3][4] the Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead,[5] and Moonlight.[6] She was nominated at the Primetime Emmy Awards and won three ADG Awards, a Critics' Choice Movie Awards and a Saturn Awards.

Early life and education

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Beachler, the daughter of an architect and interior decorator, grew up in Centerville, Ohio, being surrounded by design for a long time.[7] She graduated from the University of Cincinnati, studying fashion design. She attended Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio where she studied film.[3]

Career

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She first met Ryan Coogler working on his Fruitvale Station, a film about the shooting of Oscar Grant. It had a limited budget and required Beachler's creativity to come up with low-cost ideas; she used her own Bay Area Rapid Transit card that is seen in the visor of a car Grant is driving.[8] Fruitvale Station won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Film and the Audience Award for Best Film at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013.[9]

For Creed, Beachler watched the first four Rocky films for inspiration. She was responsible for designing Front Street Gym that appears prominently in the film. She visited a number of gyms across the United States, but particularly in Philadelphia where the film series is based, in order to get a good idea of what the set should look like. She designed the entire gym including the professionally-sized boxing ring, and her plans ensured that cameras could get a 360-degree view of everything.[3] In her efforts, she was able to transform a hall within Temple University, into the realistic gym that was seen in the film.[10]

For the outdoor scenes in Miles Ahead, Beachler searched through numerous photograph archives to accurately capture the scenes in New York City from the 1950s to the 1970s, but ultimately took inspiration from some silent film shot from a car window, that was posted on YouTube decades later.[5] She used no stage shots in the entire film; the set of Davis' home was a disused church in Cincinnati that was gutted and renovated to resemble a multi-layer house including a basement recording studio.[5]

As the production designer on Marvel Studios's Black Panther, Beachler oversaw a $30 million art budget and a crew of several hundred people.[9] Beachler is the first-ever female production designer of a Marvel film, and was the second person hired for it behind director Ryan Coogler.[1] To research the project, she first spent time in Cape Town, South Africa, and then traveled the region with the rest of the crew to get a sense of the countryside and cultures represented there. Before beginning the process of working on Black Panther with Coogler, Beachler did not believe she would have this "once in a lifetime opportunity," but to prove herself she worked hard and even ended up spending $12,000 of her own money to prove her capability.[10] "It’s all different, and they’re different countries..." Beachler explained: "you can’t represent everything, but I can certainly interpret the fact that there are so many different things within [its fictional country of] Wakanda and within that one culture."[1] For her work on Black Panther, Beachler became the first African-American to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Production Design,[11] as well as the first to win the category.

Beachler was lead curator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition, Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room, which opened in 2021.[12] Working with commissioners such as Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Jenn Nkiru, she designed this space in hopes that it would embody, "Black imagination, excellence, and self-determination...".[13]

In 2023 she figures as the directior designer of documentary concert film Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.

Filmography

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Film

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Television

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Awards and nominations

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Year Award Title of work Category Result Ref.
2016 Primetime Emmy Awards Lemonade Outstanding Production Design For A Variety, Nonfiction, Event Or Award Special Nominated [17]
2017 ADG Awards Excellence in Production Design for an Awards or Event Special Won [18]
2018 Hollywood Film Awards Black Panther Production Designer of the Year Won [19]
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Production Design Won [20]
San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Best Production Design Won [21]
St. Louis Film Critics Association Best Production Design Won [22]
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Best Production Design Won [23]
Saturn Awards Best Production Design Won [24]
2019 Academy Awards Best Production Design Won [25]
ADG Awards Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Film Won [26]
Black Reel Awards Outstanding Production Design Won [27]
Critics' Choice Awards Best Production Design Won [28]
2020 ADG Awards Black Is King Excellence in Production Design for a Variety Special Won [29]
SDSA Awards Best Achievement in Decor/Design of a Variety Special Nominated [30]
2022 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Best Production Design Nominated
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards Best Production Design Won
2023 ADG Awards Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Feature Film Nominated [31]
African-American Film Critics Association Awards Building Change Award Won
Black Reel Awards Outstanding Production Design Won
Critics' Choice Movie Awards Best Production Design Nominated
Georgia Film Critics Association Best Production Design Nominated
Hollywood Critics Association Creative Arts Awards Best Production Design Nominated
San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Awards Best Production Design Nominated
Set Decorators Society of America Awards Best Achievement in Decor/Design of a Science Fiction or Fantasy Feature Film Nominated
Hollywood Music in Media Awards Ladies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop Best Music Documentary – Special Program Nominated [32]
2024 Black Reel Awards Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé Outstanding Production Design Pending [33]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Kai, Maiysha (February 21, 2018). "The Root". The Glow Up. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  2. ^ "Beyoncé: Lemonade". IMDb. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c ""Front Street Gym is the Heartbeat of the Film": Production Designer Hannah Beachler on Creed". Filmmaker Magazine. December 23, 2015. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  4. ^ "INTerview: Hannah Beachler (Creed)". Interiors. 12 February 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  5. ^ a b c "Miles Ahead' Production Designer Mixed the Real and Surreal in Biopic". Variety. March 29, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Valentini, Valentina (November 30, 2016). "'Moonlight,' 'Black Panther' Production Designer on Big Break With Ryan Coogler". Variety. Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
  7. ^ "10 Black Women Changing the Architecture and Design Space". Architectural Digest. 2022-02-28. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  8. ^ "The unseen world of production design". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  9. ^ a b Mihalek, Bob (December 7, 2017). "Wright State University". Wright State University Newsroom. Retrieved February 23, 2018.
  10. ^ a b O'Falt, Tambay Obenson,Chris (2021-01-26). "Ryan Coogler & Production Designer Hannah Beachler". IndieWire. Retrieved 2022-11-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ Daniel Montgomery (30 January 2019). "'Black Panther' Production Designer Hannah Beachler Made Oscar History". GoldDerby. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  12. ^ Tillet, Salamishah (2021-11-17). "Afrofuturist Room at the Met Redresses a Racial Trauma". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-02.
  13. ^ Gerard, Gregory Thomas. "Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room, 2021". www.colorlight.nyc. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  14. ^ "Hannah Breachler". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on August 28, 2016. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  15. ^ "Why Beyoncé dances to 'My Power' in a church in 'Black Is King'". Los Angeles Times. 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  16. ^ Lisowski, Tom (9 June 2020). "Hannah Beachler". Artstars. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
  17. ^ "Beyonce's 'Lemonade' Picks Up Four Emmy Nominations". Billboard. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  18. ^ Kay, Jeremy (2017-01-05). "'Jackie', 'Beyoncé: Lemonade' among Art Directors Guild nominees". Screen. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  19. ^ "2018 Hollywood Film Awards: The Complete List of Winners". E! Online. 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  20. ^ Shanley, Patrick (2018-12-09). "'Roma' Named Best Picture by L.A. Film Critics Association". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  21. ^ "SF Film Critics name 'Roma' the year's best film". East Bay Times. 2018-12-10. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  22. ^ "The 2018 St. Louis Film Critics Association (StLFCA) Winners". Next Best Picture. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  23. ^ "Nomadland tops the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards". Metro Weekly. 2021-02-08. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  24. ^ Hammond, Pete (2018-06-28). "'Black Panther' Tops 44th Saturn Awards With Five; 'Blade Runner 2049' , 'Shape Of Water', 'Get Out' Also Score". Deadline. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  25. ^ Yee, Hannah-Rose (2019-02-25). "Academy Awards 2019: Hannah Beachler just made history with her powerful speech". Stylist. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  26. ^ Thompson, Anne (2019-02-03). "Art Directors Guild Awards Spread the Love to 'Black Panther,' 'The Favourite,' and 'Crazy Rich Asians'". IndieWire. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  27. ^ "Black Panther Reigns Supreme!". The Black Reel Awards. 2019-02-07. Archived from the original on 2021-08-20. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  28. ^ Crist, Allison (2019-01-13). "Critics' Choice Awards: 'Roma,' 'Americans,' 'Mrs. Maisel' Top Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  29. ^ Lindahl, Chris; Desowitz, Bill (2021-04-11). "Art Directors Guild Awards: 'Mank, 'Da 5 Bloods' Take Top Honors". IndieWire. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  30. ^ "Set Decorators Society Announces 2020 SDSA Television Nominees". Below the Line. 2021-06-17. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
  31. ^ Lindahl, Chris; Desowitz, Bill (2023-02-19). "'Babylon,' 'Everything Everywhere,' 'Glass Onion' Win Big at 2023 ADG Awards for Production Design". IndieWire. Retrieved 2023-12-20.
  32. ^ "2023 HMMA Winners and Nominees". Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
  33. ^ Complex, Valerie (December 15, 2023). "Black Reel Awards Nominations: 'The Color Purple' And 'Rustin' Dominate". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
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