by FilmInk Staff
Over 120 talented designers and design associates have been nominated for the 2025 APDG Awards, competing for awards in 18 categories for outstanding designers in feature film, television, live performance and events.
Live performance and events delivered strong nominations across costume design, set design, lighting design, video design and multi-discipline design.
The films Furiosa: A Mad Max Story and The Correspondent have dominated the 2025 APDG Awards for screen with 3 nominations each, followed by Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes with two nominations.
Nominees for Furiosa: A Mad Max Story are Annet Mackie for Concept Art; Sophie Nash, Jacinta Leong APDG & Nick Dare (& Bill Goodes) for Art Direction for a feature film or television production; and Katie Sharrock (& team) for Set Decoration for a feature film or television production.
Nominees for The Correspondent are Joanna Mae Park (& team) for Costume Design for a feature film, Karla Urizar APDG for Set Decoration for a feature film or television production, and Fiona Donovan APDG (& team) for Production Design for a feature film.
The two nominations for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes are in the Art Direction for a feature film or television production category: for Ian Gracie APDG, Tony Drew, Carlo Crescini & Jenny Hitchcock, and also for Dale Mackie (for Virtual Art Direction). There is also a nomination for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (see above) and for Jenny Hitchcock (& Jonah Booth Remmers) for Thou Shalt Not Steal.
For the Set Decoration for a feature film or television production category, as well as the nominations for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Correspondent, there are also nominations for Justine Dunn for Nautilus, and H Christian Petersen for the Fall Guy.
For the Concept Art category, as well as Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Cris Baldwin has two nominations: for Baleen Moondjan and Worlds of Wonder.
For the Production Design for a feature film category, as well as a nomination for The Correspondent, Fiona Donovan (& team) have a second nomination, for Sting. Other nominees in this category are Clayton Jauncey APDG (& Christine Lynch) for Kid Snow and Felicity Abbott APDG BFDG (& Sonja Nenadić) for Tarot.
For the Graphic Design category, the nominees are Gabrielle Rowe and Sam Walker for Last King of the Cross (Season 2), Liv Hutley (& team) for both Love Island USA (Season 6), and The Red.
For the Animation Design category, the nominees are the team of Susan Danta, Pierce Davison, Jake Duczynski, Emma Kelly, Anthony Lucas, Simon Rippingale, Marieka Walsh, Eddie White, Lee Whitmore, Kathy Sarpi, Susie Shapone & Robert Connolly for Magic Beach, Adam Elliot for Memoir of a Snail, and Mario Lendvai (& team) for The Twist (Season 2).
For the Costume Design for a television production category, the nominees are Wendy Cork APDG for House of Gods, Andrew Cox for Lost Boys & Fairies, Wendy Cork APDG for Nautilus (Season 1, Episodes 1-7), and Gypsy Taylor for The Newsreader.
For the Costume Design for a feature film category, the nominees are Cappi Ireland APDG for Betterman, Zohie Castellano for Inside, Terri Lamera APDG for Runt, and Joanna Mae Park for the Correspondent.
For the Design for a Commercial category, the nominees are Damien Drew APDG (& team) for ‘The Waiting Workforce’ (JPMorgan Chase), Steven Jones-Evans APDG (& team) for ‘Ship’ (MLA Beef), Steven Jones-Evans APDG (& team) for ‘Holly Jolly Xmas’ (Telstra), and Alex Holmes APDG (& Lisa Brennan) for ‘Wherever We Go’ (Telstra).
For the Production Design or Costume Design for a short film, music video or web series category, the nominees are Courtney Westbrook and Ara Nuri Steel for If/When, Mrunal Ramesh Jirwankar for Listen Carefully, Joseph Tiernan for There is No Antimemetics Division, and Shannon Biviano for Videoland.
For the Production Design for a television production category, the nominees are Helen O’Loan APDG for Black Snow: Jack of Clubs (Season 2), Alex Holmes APDG (& team) for Eric, Helen O’Loan APDG for Mother of the Bride, and Matt Putland APDG (& team) for Territory.
The emerging design categories are consistently popular, as they give emerging designers an opportunity to share their work with the broader design community and screen industry. This year’s emerging design screen nominees are Camille Ostrowsky (& Claudia Kryszkiewicz) for Breaking Plates, Alfonso Jose Coronel for Descent, Abbey Ling Thorley (& team) for Eat Up!, and Nathan Andrew Evans for Interview with a Hero.
APDG President Michael Scott-Mitchell said peer acknowledgement and support were profoundly important to members of the guild and a vital component in building a national design community.
“We look forward to gathering together in Sydney to celebrate the extraordinary design work of our nominees,” he said. “The width and breadth of our talented designers is truly remarkable.”
The Australian Production Design Guild (APDG) is a non-profit organisation dedicated to representing designers and their associates in screen, live performance, events, and digital production across Australia. The APDG is committed to recognizing and nurturing excellence in design through awards, mentoring, and accreditation.
To see a full list of nominees, visit HERE. Winners will be announced at the State Library of NSW, Sydney on Saturday, 16 August 2025. Tickets to the event can be purchased HERE.
