This past Saturday, February 28, the 2026 Art Directors Guild Awards were held. The ceremony celebrates achievements in art direction/production design in film and TV productions. In the words of the Art Directors Guild (ADG) themselves, the ceremony honors “the visionary production design teams behind the year’s most visually ambitious films, television series and music projects.”

The big winners Saturday night were Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another, Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, and Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: The First Steps, with these three films winning the top 3 prizes. One Battle After Another won Best Contemporary Production Design, Frankenstein won Best Period Production Design, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps won Best Fantasy Production Design. KPop Demon Hunters, meanwhile, won Best Production Design in an Animated Film.

The event comes at a time when so many traditional aspects of film production design are being taken over by AI. In a statement following the ceremony, the ADG stated that “The event underscored the vital role production designers and art directors play in shaping cinematic storytelling and immersive environments that define today’s most celebrated films and television series.”

The winners to focus on are One Battle After Another and Frankenstein, both nominated for Best Production Design at this year’s Academy Awards. It is common for the Art Directors Guild Award winners to win Best Production Design at the following Academy Awards. One example is 2024’s Wicked, which won Best Production Design at the 2025 Academy Awards after winning Best Fantasy Production Design at the Art Directors Guild Awards.

A full list of winners for this year’s Art Directors Guild Awards can be viewed here.