Set Design

The 2017 Oscars Stage Is Inspired by Vintage Art Deco Style

Designer Derek McLane gives us a sneak peek at this year's Academy Awards sets

February 21, 2017

For the fifth year in a row, designer Derek McLane has been tasked by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to imagine the stage for the biggest night in Hollywood: the Oscars. Tony and Emmy Award winner McLane, who is also known for his work on Broadway and for live television musicals, including Hairspray Live!, took us behind the scenes last year, and we’re thrilled to chat with him again, this time about his 2017 design. “Our inspiration is Art Deco and Hollywood Regency,” says McLane. “There are new producers this year—Mike De Luca and Jennifer Todd—and those were the first words out of their mouths when they hired me.”

To truly embrace the concept, the team studied iconic Art Deco buildings, but they also took a look at movie sets from the 1930s—in particular, the work of Irish production designer Cedric Gibbons, who was nominated for 38 Oscars and won 11. (Gibbons also contributed to the design of the Oscar statuette back in 1928.) The goal for the stage is simple: to entertain. The Art Deco style is associated with an era of movies that were whimsical, spectacular, and, to an extent, escapist. “This is a turbulent time,” says McLane, “and it would be great to make people smile.” Here, take a look at McLane’s sketches of his fanciful stage designs.

See the 2017 Academy Awards on Sunday, February 26, at 8:30 p.m. EST on ABC.

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For one set, translucent fabric creates cellophane-esque drapes that surround the stage—a look often found in vintage film musicals. Eleven towering Oscar statuettes, seen in the center of the sketch, are formed by individual strands of Swarovski crystals. “Where the crystals are and aren't determines the shape of the statuette,” says McLane. “We used about 150,000 crystals in the strands.” Swarovski is no stranger to the Oscars stage—more than one million crystals have been used in the ceremony over the last ten years. “Swarovski has a long history in cinema, going back to the early days of Hollywood,” says Nadja Swarovski. “Derek’s showstopping decor and cascading crystal curtains never fail to amaze the audience and add impact to this special event.”
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These six structures, which McLane calls “wire towers,” have the ability to turn and move across the entire stage. With limited space—and a very specific budget—having these moving parts allows for a variety of looks to keep the audience engaged. “They feel really Hollywood Regency to me,” says McLane. “They have quite a bit of dimension, and they all have their own internal lighting to really show that.”

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These geometric Art Deco fans are one of the smaller elements on the Oscars stage. “If you look at the long shot, they don’t look like much,” says McLane. “But over the course of the telecast, they’re something you’ll see a lot of.” Many of the presenters will stand in front of the fans, so when the camera zooms in, the audience will see their intricate detailing. While they look beveled, they’re actually almost entirely flat—McLane used two tones of fabric to trick the eye into perceiving shadows.
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McLane nicknamed this design “the moon portal,” and it’s not hard to see why. “It very closely mirrors something Cedric Gibbons designed for a movie,” McLane says. “It has a slightly Eastern feeling to it, and yet it has some Deco flourishes at the same time. And maybe a little Art Nouveau in the swirling curves of this piece.” Such a blending of styles and influences is a main characteristic of the Art Deco movement.

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When thinking of Art Deco, it’s difficult to deny the significance of skyscrapers, from New York’s Empire State Building and Chrysler Building to Los Angeles’s Eastern Columbia Building. McLane was inspired by such iconic architecture when designing this magnificent set. The neon flair of Miami’s Art Deco scene even makes an appearance, with projection mapping used to light some of the elements. “This is also very much inspired by a couple of different movie musicals from the ’30s, where they made these fantastical cityscapes that look like Deco buildings, but they also look somewhat unreal,” says McLane. The backdrop clearly defines the ceremony’s home, the rolling Hollywood Hills.