Barbie: In Conversation with Sarah Greenwood, Production Designer and Katie Spencer, Set Decorator

WFTV members are invited to an online Q&A with Sarah Greenwood, Production Designer and Katie Spencer, Set Decorator, two of the creative team behind the smash hit of the year: Barbie.

Long time collaborators, Katie and Sarah’s notable shared credits include the Academy nominated films Darkest Hour, Beauty & the Beast, Anna Karenina, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice and Cyrano. Their work on Barbie, partly filmed on soundstages at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in 2022, plays a key part in the story and includes Barbie DreamHouses over 25 feet high, hand-painted skies, mountains and palm trees and hundreds of original objects used to create Barbie’s world.

The conversation will be moderated by Anna Smith, broadcaster and film critic. There will be an opportunity to ask the panel questions during the last 15 minutes of the session.

ABOUT BARBIE

To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.

From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (Little Women, Lady Bird) comes Barbie, starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (Bombshell, I, Tonya) and Ryan Gosling (La La Land, Half Nelson) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (End of Watch, the How to Train Your Dragon films), Kate McKinnon (Bombshell, Yesterday), Michael Cera (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Juno), Ariana Greenblatt (Avengers: Infinity War, 65), Issa Rae (The Photograph, Insecure), Rhea Perlman (I’ll See You in My Dreams, Matilda), and Will Ferrell (the Anchormanfilms, Talladega Nights). 

Gerwig directed “Barbie” from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”), based on Barbie by Mattel. The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (“Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Ynon Kreiz, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.   

Gerwig’s creative team behind the camera included Oscar-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”), six-time Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Anna Karenina”), editor Nick Houy (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women,” “Anna Karenina”), visual effects supervisor Glen Pratt (“Paddington 2,” “Beauty and the Beast”), music supervisor George Drakoulias (“White Noise,” “Marriage Story”) and Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (“The Shape of Water,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel”).   

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a Heyday Films Production, a LuckyChap Entertainment Production, a Mattel Production, “Barbie.”

Event Schedule

18:25: Please join the webinar waiting room

18:30: In conversation with Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer

19:15: Audience Q&A

19:30: Finish

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

SARAH GREENWOOD is one of the film industry’s most revered and honored production designers, with multiple Academy Award nominations and BAFTA Award nominations and wins. She has been a regular collaborator with director Joe Wright, most recently working on Cyrano, for which she was BAFTA-nominated for Best Production Design.

Prior to this, Greenwood teamed with Wright on Darkest Hour, starring Gary Oldman, for which she received Academy Award, ADG Award and BAFTA Award nominations; and before this Anna Karenina, for which she received an Academy Award and BAFTA nomination, and the ADG and Critics Choice Award for Best Production Design. Other feature collaborations with Wright comprise Hanna; The Soloist; Atonement for which she received an Academy Award and ADG nomination, as well as the BAFTA Award for production design. Greenwood also received an Academy Award nomination for Wright’s Pride & Prejudice.

Further notable feature credits include Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca, for which Greenwood received a BAFTA nomination, and Bill Condon’s Beauty and the Beast, which garnered her Academy Award, ADG, BAFTA and Critics Choice Award nominations. Greenwood has twice collaborated with director Guy Ritchie, on Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Sherlock Holmes, for which she received an Academy Award nomination and the ADG Award for Best Production Design. Before this, Greenwood worked with director Bharat Nalluri on Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day; Tom Vaughan on Starter for 10; Stefan Schwartz on The Abduction Club: David Kane on both Born Romantic and This Year’s Love; Sandra Goldbacher on The Governess: and Robert Bierman on A Merry War.

Key television credits include Joe Wright’s mini-series The Last King, for which Greenwood was BAFTA-nominated, Wright’s Bodily Harm and Nature Boy; Paul Seed’s Ready When You Are Mr. McGill; Jean Stewart’s Loving You; Robert Bierman’s The Moonstone; Mike Barker’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, for which Greenwood was BAFTA-nominated; Patrick Marber’s Performance: After Miss Julie; Chris Rawlence’s The King of Hearts; and Peter Symes’ Black Daisies for the Bride.

KATIE SPENCER is a six-time Academy Award nominee, recognized for her work on a wide range of films, including Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Sherlock Holmes, Anna Karenina, Beauty and the Beast and Darkest Hour. She has also been nominated for seven BAFTA Awards, winning for Atonement.

Spencer was born in Yorkshire, England and studied stage management at Central School of Speech and Drama in London. After several years working in the West End and other area theatres, including the Royal Court, Almeida and Donmar Warehouse, she transitioned to work as a freelancer for the BBC. Retraining first as a production buyer, then as a set decorator, she worked on such projects as Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and Anne Brontë’s The Tennant of Wildfell Hall.

It was at the BBC that Spencer first met and worked with production designer Sarah Greenwood, a unique and close collaboration and that has continued for over 20 years. They have worked on many successful films together, ranging from period pieces like Pride & Prejudice and Atonement to action movies Sherlock Holmes and Hanna, innovative pieces like Anna Karenina, the musicals Beauty and the Beast and Cyrano, through to their latest collaboration, Barbie.

Spencer also serves on the Executive Committee for Production Design at the Academy of Motion Pictures (AMPAS). 

In 2024, AMPAS will be hosting an exhibition in Los Angeles, showcasing the work and unique collaboration between Spencer and Greenwood.

ANNA SMITH is a broadcaster and one of the UK’s top film critics.

She is the former President of the UK Critics’ Circle, the host of the Girls On Film podcast and a regular film critic for BBC News, Sky News, BBC Radio, Deadline Hollywood, Time Out, Metro, The Guardian, Sight & Sound, Empire and more.

She has spent over a decade interviewing major actors and directors on stage, on screen and in print. A former magazine editor, Anna decided to go freelance in 2000, and has since enjoyed stints as Acting Film Editor of both Time Out London and Metro UK Newspaper.

How will the online event work?

This event will be live streamed via Zoom.us. Viewing details will be sent via your confirmation.

Attending participants will not be visible to others and will be muted throughout the session. After the talk, there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask their questions to the panel by using the Q&A feature.

This event is for existing WFTV members only.

If you are not a member and would like to join, membership costs just £100 + VAT/yr, please click here or email admin@wftv.org.uk

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