The Art Directors Guild announced that Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated production designer Jim Bissell will receive the guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the 19th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards on Jan. 31, 2015 at a black-tie ceremony at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
“Jim Bissell’s work as a production designer is legendary and we are proud to rank him among the best in the history of our profession. He is an extraordinary artist and accomplished leader in the industry, and it is our pleasure to name him as this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient,” said John Shaffner, ADG council chairman. Bissell is a past vice president of the ADG and a board member for more than 15 years. He also chaired the guild’s awards committee for the first three years of its existence.
Bissell’s work can be seen on such films as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Rocketeer (1991), Jumanji (1995), 300 (2006), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) and The Monuments Men (2014), directed by and starring George Clooney. The Monuments Men is Jim’s fourth collaboration with Clooney, which began with Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), followed by the Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) and continuing with Leatherheads (2007).
Bissell has been awarded a Primetime Emmy for Palmerstown, U.S.A. (shared with Bill Webb, 1980), an Oscar nomination and Satellite Award win for Good Night, and Good Luck (Oscar nomination shared with Jan Pascale, 2005) among additional nominations from the ADG, BAFTA and LAFCA Awards.
Bissell was an instructor with the UCLA Extension Program for the “Production Design in Film: The Language of Vision” course from 1989 to 1993. He has also been a guest lecturer for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, AFI, USC, Art Center College of Design and Chapman University. Bissell graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.F.A. in Theater Arts.
Nominations for this year’s ADG Excellence in Production Design Awards will be announced on Jan. 5, 2015. The ADG will present winners in ten competitive categories for theatrical films, television productions, commercials and music videos on Jan. 31, 2015.
