Production, costume and set designer and producer Catherine Martin will receive AACTA’s Longford Lyell Award next Wednesday, recognising her influence and global contribution to film.
The Longford Lyell Award comes amid 15 AACTA nominations for Elvis, Martin’s most recent project, directed by her husband and collaborator, Baz Luhrmann.
Martin is personally up for three awards for the film: Best Costume Design; Best Production Design with Karen Murphy and Beverley Dunn; and Best Film, with fellow producers Luhrmann, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss.
The Longford Lyell is AACTA’s most prestigious prize. First presented in 1968, it honours Australian film pioneer Raymond Longford and his partner in filmmaking and life, Lottie Lyell.
Previous recipients include Cate Blanchett, George Miller, Paul Hogan, Jack Thompson, Jacki Weaver and most recently, the late David Gulpilil.
The award will add to a hefty mantlepiece for Martin, the most decorated Australian in Oscar history, with two Academy Awards for Moulin Rouge! and two for The Great Gatsby. She also has five BAFTAs, a Tony Award, five AFIs and three AACTAs. She has also previously won AFI’s Byron Kennedy Award in 1999.
Martin and Luhrmann met at NIDA, with their first big screen collaboration 1992’s Strictly Ballroom, followed by Romeo + Juliet, which saw Martin pick up her first Oscar nomination for Best Production Design.
Martin designed the sets and co-designed the costumes with Angus Strathie for 2001’s Moulin Rouge!, the last of the Red Curtain Trilogy, winning two Oscars. In 2003, she won a Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for her work on Luhrmann’s Broadway adaptation of La Bohème.
In 2008, Martin shared AFI Awards for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design with Eliza Godman for Australia, and was nominated for an Oscar for costume design.
Next, Martin oversaw the construction of 42 sets over 14 weeks on The Great Gatsby, earning her two more Oscars, two BAFTAs and two AACTA Awards for Costume Design and Production Design, which she shared with Dunn.
As for Elvis, the number of sets were double that of The Great Gatsby, and the film had more than 9,000 costumes, with 90 costumes for lead Austin Butler. Martin worked with some of those who worked on Elvis’s actual costumes, including a collaboration Kim and Butch Polson of B&K Enterprises, who recreated his jumpsuits for the film with permission of the singer’s long-time costume designer Bill Belew, and tailor Jean Doucette.
With the exception of Netflix series The Get Down, Luhrmann and Martin have made all their screen projects in Australia.
“I am humbled and honoured to be this year’s recipient of the Longford Lyell Award,” Martin said.
“To be recognised by one’s peers in one’s home country is profoundly meaningful.
“Australia, with its myriad filmmaking opportunities and wonderful talents, has been extraordinarily fertile soil for my body of work, and for this I am truly grateful.
“The award also resonates with me personally as its namesakes were, as Baz and I am, both partners in life and art. Baz and I often joke that we are just getting started, so I hope this ‘lifetime achievement award’ is not a full stop, but a comma; heralding the beginning of new and exciting creative adventures to be shared with both long-time collaborators and new artists alike, in front of and behind the camera.”
AACTA CEO Damian Trewhella said the academy was proud to honour Martin’s “relentless” work and contribution to the Australian industry, noting the high regard she is held in by her peers and audiences alike.
“For over three decades, Catherine Martin has been injecting colour and life onto our screens through visionary artistry and experimental designs. Receiving the Byron Kennedy Award from the Australian Film Institute in 1999, and now the Longford Lyell Award 23 years later exemplifies the dedication she has for her craft.”