LONDON, 12th February 2024: The British Film Designer’s Guild is delighted to announce the contenders for their prestigious Planet Positive Award 2024, supported by Sky Studios Elstree. The winner of the award will be announced at The 13th BFDG Awards, supported by BENlabs which takes place at The Londoner Hotel on Saturday 24th February celebrating some of the best creative talent in the film and television industry.
The seven acclaimed productions being considered for the Planet Positive Award are: The Crown, Hijack, A Haunting in Venice, Good Omens, Cobra, The Continental and Sloborn.
This award marks a significant step for the industry, affirming that sustainability should be a cornerstone of creative design, integrated from the project’s inception rather than as an afterthought.
All of these productions go beyond traditional boundaries of set design, focusing on reducing waste, repurposing materials, and adopting innovative, sustainable building and construction processes. A core element of the award is the demonstration of new and unconventional materials with low environmental footprints. Notable mentions include pioneering the use of cardboard as a versatile and renewable medium, along with responsible set disassembly and the repurposing of sets and props.
In the spirit or sharing and circularity, the BFDG has made all the entries presentations available to view on their website, featuring presentations and creative resources and drawings, offering valuable insights into the sustainable strategies employed by the nominated productions and emphasising that environmentally friendly practices can lead to not only a healthier planet but also to significant cost and time efficiencies.
The BFDG’s judging panel for the award includes consultants from Sustainable Film and Picture Zero, BAFTA albert, BFDG Committee Members and Sky Elstree Studios executives.
Blair Barnette, Chairperson of the BFDG said:
“The BFDG’s Planet Positive Award is leading the charge for conscious creation. By celebrating the work of these Art Departments, the BFDG hopes to encourage a wider embrace of environmental responsibility within the film and television community. Nominating these productions is a significant acknowledgment of their groundbreaking contributions, and will continue to inspire others to seek out innovative, sustainable solutions for their own projects”
The Planet Positive Award, made possible through the generous support of Sky Studios Elstree, honours film and TV productions that not only strive for artistic excellence but also demonstrate a deep commitment to environmental conservation. Projects on the shortlist have innovatively utilised materials, processes, and design philosophies to minimise waste, repurposed materials, and build in environmentally friendly production steps.
Noel Tovey, Managing Director, Sky Studios Elstree highlighted the company’s green initiatives, stating:
“Sustainability has always been a priority for us in the creation of Sky Studios Elstree, and we’re proud to have some of the most ambitious studio sustainability goals in the world. That’s why we’re thrilled to be sponsoring the BFDG Planet Positive Award. We hope that by recognising the incredible work of the nominated productions we will inspire and guide the industry towards a greener future.”
April Sotomayor, Head of Industry Sustainability at BAFTA albert said:
“It is fantastic to see such brilliant submissions from ambitious Art Departments who are making critical choices to do better by people and planet. This year’s entries showed creative thinking to address not only lower carbon options in set design and construction, but on a variety of other sustainability solutions – from designing out waste, reducing or eliminating toxic materials, reuse, and giving back to local communities. The BFDG’s Planet Positive Award is a brilliant way to showcase some of the best and inspire others to normalise these practices in their own work.’”
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Notes to Editors:
About the 13th BFDG Production Design Awards:
For further information about the 13th BFDG Production Design Awards go to the BFDG website
About the BFDG:
The Society of British Film Directors and Designers was founded in 1946. Out of this society grew the Guild of Film Art Directors, and the present British Film Designers Guild (BFDG). Today the BFDG is flourishing with over 630 memberships of skilled technicians and designers, spanning all the various branches of the Art Department, as well as corporate members.
The BFDG membership covers a diverse range of Art Department skills and experience, working on projects of all budgets, from International to Independent and micro-financed productions, as well as Feature Films, Shorts, Pilots, Promos, Commercials, TV Film, TV Series and Light Entertainment.
About Sky Elstree Studios:
Sky Studios Elstree has 12 sound stages ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 square feet as well as over 350,000 sqft of workshop space, five fully kitted out production offices, six acres of backlot, screening rooms and a café space.
The site is easy to reach, just 20 minutes from central London, close to three major international airports and with plenty of parking spaces. Plus, to make life just that little bit easier, there’s a free electric shuttle bus from the local train station, taking crew directly onto site.
The first production at Sky Studios Elstree was the feature film adaptation of ‘Wicked’, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo. The team have also welcomed the much-loved Paddington onto site for the third film ‘Paddington in Peru’.
The site makes being a responsible production easy with sustainability built in and accessibility needs met throughout.
Sky Studios Elstree will also become a training ground for the next generation of film and TV talent, with Sky Up Academy opening later this year, training 10,000 school students a year.
Find out more at www.skystudioselstree.com
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Ali O’Neill, Communications Manager, BFDG – [email protected]
