The Top 25 Best Production Design Winners So Far (Updated for 2024)

Well, we’re back at it! Continuing a tradition I’ve been keen on for years, I’m ranking the new crop of Academy Award winners. For nearly all of the Oscar categories, you’ll see me list the top 25 recipients of that prize. Sometimes, our newest winner will appear. Other times, they’ll be relegated to the Honorable Mention category. Who knows, maybe one or two won’t even make the cut? It’s a list series that I’ll do each and every single year, in the weeks after the ceremony concludes. So, while this is a fun way to think about the Oscars in the aftermath of the latest telecast, it’s also a beginning for another column here on the site. Of course, definitely show us your own lists as well, in the comments section below. We’re definitely keen to know what you all think!

This week, I’ll be doing the Best Production Design category. Sometimes, this is a field where “best” can mean “most,” but it’s no surefire thing. Flashy contenders do tend to do very well, however, as you’ll see below. Frankly, as I always say with this piece, it’s hard to beat Batman here, as what Anton Furst realized is pretty spectacular. That being said, La La Land and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood did come close. It’s another category where it’s very hard to dislike any of the victorious films. They’re just all great looking movies, plain and simple. How does our most recent winners in All Quiet on the Western Front and Poor Things fare? What about the prior year’s Dune? What of the impressive Mank from a the year before that? Does it maintain its initial spot? You’ll have to see next, but Dune also does come in at a pretty impressive spot, so the competition is fierce. Read on for more…

Here are what I consider to be the 25 best winners of the Best Production Design Oscar, to date:

25. Doctor Zhivago
24. The Great Gatsby (2013)
23. Hugo
22. The Godfather: Part II
21. Avatar
20. The Apartment
19. Mad Max: Fury Road
18. Schindler’s List
17. Moulin Rouge!
16. Mank
15. Dick Tracy
14. Lawrence of Arabia
13. Chicago
12. Raiders of the Lost Ark
11. Dune
10. Star Wars
9. Barry Lyndon
8. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7. Black Panther
6. Titanic
5. Pan’s Labyrinth
4. Poor Things
3. Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
2. La La Land
1. Batman

Honorable Mention: All Quiet on the Western Front, The Aviator, Cabaret, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Last Emperor, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Stay tuned for another category early next week!