Variety’s 2026 Artisans to Watch: ‘Obsession’ Makeup Head, ‘Project Hail Mary’ Animation Supervisor, ‘La Bola Negra’ Composer and More

Supervising sound editor, “The Mosquito Bowl”

Jimkes approached the film’s World War II Pacific Theater setting with a focus on authenticity, researching the specific weapons used by the Japanese and American military forces, including the M1 Garand rifle.

Its distinctive metallic “ping” served as more than just a historically accurate reference. “It adds a sense of urgency, and it’s a decision-making moment,” Jimkes says, noting the sound signals when a character must reload, switch weapons or resort to hand-to-hand combat.

The sounds of the soldiers were a priority. The breaths and physical reactions recorded on set were pushed forward against the chaos of the battle to ground the characters’ humanity. Even in quieter scenes, the jungle location was alive with sound, creating a sense of pressure surrounding the soldiers.

Blending these elements together is a process Jimkes refers to as a “parade of sound,” adding, “Your brain can only process so many sounds at the same time. However, it’s very good at processing rapidly successive sounds.”

The sound needed to move the story forward. For Jimkes, that meant determining which sound should take priority in each moment while never losing sight of the people at the center of the film’s story. — Tanya Fedak

Animation supervisor, “Project Hail Mary”

Despite having no face, eyes or traditional way to convey human emotion, Rocky became the emotional heart of “Project Hail Mary.”

Licinio navigated that by developing physical language for the alien rock creature. Licinio oversaw a team of animators who studied the physical puppet used for filming, using its on-set movements as a reference while expanding Rocky’s mannerisms. “[Rocky’s puppeteer and voice] James Ortiz did a good job getting expressions out of this rock,” he says. “How can we enhance it in a way that we can use in reference? How can we tie the loose ends?”

Licinio and his team looked to early puppetry and the exaggerated performances from silent film stars like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Without features to convey human emotion, Rocky instead uses his elbows, body and distinctive head movements, sometimes angling himself just five degrees more to express his feelings. When he is shy, for example, he pulls an elbow in front of himself as if hiding. Some of Rocky’s mannerisms originated on set, including a tapping gesture to answer questions from Ortiz that the animators incorporated into the final character. Other movements, such as Rocky’s finger-like computing gestures, were created in CG. “It’s a collaboration at the end,” Licinio says. “That’s what I like to say about the film.” — T.F.

Art director, “Pluribus”

SCAD alum Lott recalls “Pluribus” production designer Denise Pizzini reaching out to help develop a Norwegian ice hotel that would be built entirely on stage. Lott recalls, “The brief was to create a hotel that felt authentic and entirely sculpted from ice, while designing it around the practical limitations of a stage build.”

Lott saw it as a great opportunity to bring together his background in illustration, architecture and set design.

On his process, Lott says, “The initial scope of the set was actually larger than what ultimately appeared on screen and included a hotel lobby, foyer, bar and the individual hotel rooms. That meant thinking through the hotel as a complete environment from the beginning, establishing how the spaces connected and giving each one its own identity while making sure they all felt like part of the same place.”

Lott knew that many details would be handcarved by ice sculptors. “I was essentially designing artwork that also had to function architecturally, work within the realities of a stage build and give the sculptors something tangible they could interpret and bring to life,” he says. So he turned to real ice hotels throughout Scandinavia, particularly the ICEHOTEL in Sweden and hotels in Norway and Finland for inspiration. — Jazz Tangcay

Editor, “Clarissa”

For McClendon, editing films is a lot like music. It’s all about finding the right rhythm, texture, pace and cutting where the beat falls. Sometimes finding this groove is deliberate and difficult, and other times, like on “Clarissa,” the experience is filled with happy accidents. “It’s like a rooster crows at exactly the right moment to keep the shot interesting and keep it going, and we were like, ‘Oh, that’s great, that guy has to stay,’” McClendon says.

It also helped that the actors delivered great performances, McClendon explains.

Stars David Oyelowo, Sophie Okonedo and Ayo Edebiri worked with directors Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri to allow scenes to unfurl naturally and used editing to enhance characters’ emotions. To McClendon, this is the way it’s supposed to be. One of the biggest misconceptions he shares about editing is the idea that it’s a place for fixing as opposed to fine-tuning.

To achieve a final cut, McClendon and the directors discussed their wishes and ideas for what the film would be, and McClendon aimed to make as many of them come true as possible. He knew he was done when they had “emotionally exhausted the avenues of what you’re trying to make.” By the end, he could happily accept that “this is the movie this movie is. It’s not the movie that is in my head or Chuko’s head or Arie’s head or the producer’s head or the DP’s head, but you start to recognize, like, no, that is how this movie runs,” McClendon says. — Isabelle Farina

Cinematographer, “The Invite”, “Club Kid”

Newport-Berra’s range is on display in two films this awards season: “The Invite,” directed by and starring Olivia Wilde, and “Club Kid,” directed by and starring Jordan Firstman.

“I tend to enjoy working with actor-directors because we get this dynamic experience on set where they get to direct the film both from outside and from within during the scene, which I think is a special opportunity for a director to be inside the moment,” Newport-Berra says.

“The Invite” takes place over one night and follows two dynamic couples inside one apartment. The premise provided Wilde and Newport-Berra with a creative challenge. “We loved the script, but we thought, ‘How do we make this really sing on screen?’ It can’t just feel like a play. It can’t just be about presenting the material. It needs to be dynamic.”

Newport-Berra sought ways to liberate his camera within the confines of the space.

With no big cranes available, lensing and composition had to tell the story. “Olivia and I looked through a lot of references, took a lot of photos and talked about why certain images make us feel awkward, seduced, anxious or in love,” he explains.

“We really used composition and the focal lengths of our lenses to either compress people and make things feel flat and claustrophobic, or we would use a wider lens to make it feel very intimate, gentle, sexy and seductive.”

“Club Kid” emphasizes the character dynamics. Firstman’s Peter finds his life turned upside down after years of partying in New York clubs when he learns he has a 10-year-old son, Arlo (Reggie Absolom). Newport-Berra wanted to handle the relationship between Reggie and Jordan’s characters with care. “It was through rehearsals, and every morning, Jordan and I would check in, read through the script together, and feel whatever we were feeling that day,” Newport-Berra says. — J.T.

Composer, “La Bola Negra”

When scoring Netflix’s “La Bola Negra,” Refree knew he wanted to pursue a timeless, orchestral and avant-garde sound.

The film recounts the story of three generations of queer men whose lives are connected through love and loss.

Refree tied his instrumentation to the characters rather than the eras. “Sebastián (Guitarricadelafuente) plays the trumpet, so his scenes rely heavily on the brass section. Carlos (Milo Quifes) plays the piano, so his music features the piano alongside the string section. Finally, Alberto’s (Carlos González) story takes place in the present day, and because he is going through a personal crisis, his music relies much more on silence,” Refree says.

As the three stories intersect, the music follows suit by blending these different colors and timbres, building toward the final climax.

The film contains several songs including “La Nieve,” sung by Sebastián. “Guitarricadelafuente brought the idea for ‘La Nieve’ to Los Javis (the film’s directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo).

They loved it and asked me to incorporate it into the score, so I adapted his initial concept to align with the rest of the soundtrack,” Refree says. “Having worked with Guitarricadelafuente frequently over
the last few years, we have a great creative dynamic, which made it easy to co-write the song and develop the right sound.” — J.T.

Casting director, “Elsinore”

Casting for “Elsinore” was a particularly nuanced feat for Ronane. She felt a responsibility to the truth. She had to cast a play within a film based on the real-life happenings of London’s National Theatre in 1989.

To do so, Ronane and “Elsinore” director Simon Stone worked closely together scouring their web of actors and building a “story map of all the real people and then started to think about instinctively who has the spirit of the character, and how are we going to identify the right actors to put forward,” Ronane says.

Ronane’s instincts led her to focus on performers with theater experience. Once Andrew Scott was solidified for the role of Ian Charleson, Ronane quickly thought of David Dawson to play Derek Jarman. She had seen the pair perform together in a play back in 2014 and couldn’t shake their chemistry. “Seeing the two of them on a small stage together like that in a really intimate setting, I could not stop thinking about that when we spoke about David Dawson in this role,” Ronane says.

Casting Olivia Colman as Margaret was also instinctual. Her “particular brand of sensitivity and humor and wisdom and sort of spiciness” made her a natural choice to play the part, Ronane says.

“What an incredible thing to be able to build on your instincts like that, to be able to really feel that your taste is appreciated by collaborators who want kind of more of that,” Ronane says. — I. F.

Make-up and hair department head/ special makeup effects department head, “Obsession”

For “Obsession,” Shehorn was tasked with creating looks that could withstand the film’s practical effects while still telling the characters’ stories. For Sarah’s (Megan Lawless) face-smash sequence, Shehorn crafted multiple versions of the character’s head, including a live cast taken from the actor as she screamed and a prosthetic version that could ultimately be smashed on camera. Shehorn and the team carefully choreographed each transition, switching from the actor’s live-action performance to the prosthetic before revealing Sarah’s final smashed-in face.

Working with the blood rigs presented another technical challenge, particularly because the team filmed scenes out of order. “We actually shot the end sequence of the movie before we did the blood rigs to establish the blood looks,” Shehorn says.

“We had to predict where the blood was going on Bear (Michael Johnston), even on Nikki (Inde Navarrette).”

One of Shehorn’s more elaborate looks was Nikki’s final appearance after murdering Sarah, which reflects her growing obsession with becoming her. Shehorn used the same lipstick and eyeliner shades on Nikki that Sarah wears, while dried blood sits beneath the fresh blood to represent the fact that Nikki never washes it from her face. She also used Sarah’s eyeliner shade to draw Nikki’s tattoos and, by the end of the film, curled Nikki’s hair as another visual connection to Sarah. “That’s why we kept Nikki’s hair straight throughout the film, because we wanted to show the difference in the characters between Sarah and Nikki, so that in the end we can really push those moments of ‘Oh, she’s really trying to be her,’” she says. — T.F.

Costume designer, “Sense and Sensibility”

Snell is a Jane Austen fan, but she tried not to be intimidated by the fact that “Sense and Sensibility” was an Austen adaptation. “I took my role very seriously and did lots of research, but then I was reassured by our director and the producers that they wanted my version of this,” she says. “What I wanted to do was design a film that I could see myself in, see my friends in, see my family in, try and knock down the wall that often is associated with period dramas.”

Georgia Oakley’s film isn’t the first “Sense and Sensibility” adaptation, and while Snell loves the 1995 version, she also knew this film was a different take. Part of that was her blend of modern styling and historical accuracy. “As a designer, it was an amazing experience to try and fight those two sides,” she says. With help from a dress historian, Snell created a modern take on costumes from the “tip of Regency” era using historically accurate fabrics and hand-sewing techniques.

Snell was also inspired by family portraits. She wanted the Dashwood women to share clothing in the way that sisters do. “The dynamic of those sisters and how they share clothes and how they’re inspired by each other was important,” she says. “We do rework some of the fabrics so that the garments look like they have a life themselves and how garments are loved and shared and borrowed within a family.” — Mya Copeland

Production designer, “Backrooms”

Kane Parsons’ “Backrooms” web series became a YouTube phenomenon, amassing over 200 million views across its episodes. When Parsons began adapting the series into a feature film, Vermette had already seen the series but wasn’t fully aware of Parsons’ work. “I watched all of Kane’s stuff and came to realize how much is out there, and what a following it had,” Vermette says.

He jokingly refers to this experience as attending “Backrooms University.” In conversations with Parsons, Vermette realized there was much more to the concept than just liminal spaces. Bringing the world to life as a period piece — the story is set in the 1990s — required close collaboration with the film’s cinematographer Jeremy Cox and costume designer Micah Cade to determine what would work within “the yellow universe.”

One of the challenges was designing the drop ceilings. “My key thought was to keep this original to the series but bring it up to that next level of cinema and make it beautiful,” Vermette explains. The ceilings were customized, which turned into a major undertaking. “There were a lot, a lot of lights — 375 individual lenses and troffers on the set.”

Finding multiples of the same furniture became a challenge. Lead buyer Eric Cairns was tasked with finding 32 of the exact same couches in the tone they wanted. Parsons questioned it. Vermette recalls, “Kane said, ‘I don’t think they have to all be the same.’ I said, ‘But what if they were all the same? Wouldn’t it be amazing?’” — J.T.