By: Diana Mendez

I love movies, and I love celebrating them each year by watching the Academy Awards. Last night’s Oscars was no exception, with so many deserving performances and contributions being recognized.

One of my favorite Oscar categories is Production Design. Production designers are critical to a film’s story. They create impactful spaces and experiences that are in many ways additional characters in the film. Prop masters, graphic designers, and set decorators all come together to create the production designer’s vision. They assist with almost every part of a project, including the smallest details. I often find myself rewatching films because I am so captivated by the set designs. This year’s Oscar production design category was one of my favorite years yet, and includes two of my favorite films: “Barbie” and “Poor Things.”

Most of us are familiar with Barbie but production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer were less familiar. Neither one of them even owned a Barbie, yet they were successful in creating a perfect, pink, plastic world. The Barbie Dreamhouse set in a Palm Springs-like backdrop was perfect. The small details throughout the film such as capturing the scale of things such as certain props being larger (like Barbie’s hairbrush) was comical. The result was a fantasy set inspired by a girl’s imagination.

Last night’s winner for Excellence in Production Design, “Poor Things,” is a Frankenstein-like story about a woman who is brought back to life with an infant’s brain in an adult body. Throughout the film, she discovers the world, and this world is something of its own. It was one of the most imaginative sets I have ever seen. Production designers James Price and Sona Heath layered different architectural styles throughout yet somehow created a completely consistent vision. This highly detailed collage approach also helped tell the story of the characters, specifically Bella’s progression through different stages of emotional development and empowerment.

Both films had completely different looks, but I found the stories related to one another. They both tell a feminist story about rebirth and discovery. I truly think the production design had a significant impact on how these stories were told.