Los Angeles native, Florencia Martin, received her first Academy Award nomination this year as production designer of Damien Chazelle’s Golden Globe Best Picture nominee, Babylon. She also was production designer for Golden Globe-nominated Blonde.
But Martin has been making waves since she started her career as assistant set decorator on the ground-breaking TV Series Mad Men. After working as a set decorator on the TV limited series Feud: Bette and Joan (2017) and the TV reboot of Twin Peaks, The Return (2017) – both nominated for Emmys for set decoration – she continued as set decorator for three films that all shared the Art Directors Guild Award nominations with their design team: Manchester by the Sea (2017), Us (2019) and Birds of Prey (2020).
As production designer, she worked with Paul Thomas Anderson on Licorice Pizza (2021), and now she’s taken on the world of silent movies and epic party and battle scenes on Babylon, starring Diego Calva, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie.
HFPA member Margaret Gardiner caught up with Martin before the Oscars, to hear her thoughts on creating the lush worlds we see on screen today.