Hungarian Set Decorator of Dune Honored at BAFTA Awards

Among the winners of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) is Hungarian set decorator Zsuzsanna Sipos, who was awarded the Best Production Design Prize for Dune, together with Canadian production designer Patrice Vermette.

As we previously reported, Zsuzsanna Sipos was also nominated as a member of the Dune production design team, as a set decorator for an Academy Award,  to which she reacted by saying that it is “surreal, incomprehensible, I would never have imagined it, I don’t know if I will ever believe it.” Sipos already considered it a big deal to be nominated for the Set Decorator’s Society of America award.

Sipos does not work on the set but is involved in the preparation of the film, leading a crew that works on building the sets and props. “We have concept designers, we have people who do photoshop drawings, and then we have people who do 3D modeling, who do floor plans,” she explained before. The work is especially important to draw up a budget, and determine how much money can be spent.

The BAFTA awards were presented at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Dune was also awarded in three other categories, including Best Cinematography (Greig Fraser), while Best Film went to The Power Of The Dog.

It is likely that the sequel to Dune will start shooting in Hungary later this year, and Sipos hopes to work with the same team. She also agrees that there is a lot of potential in filmmaking in Hungary, but a shortage of professionals. She has previously worked on Blade Runner 2049, and in Hungary on Gemini Man, Borgia, and The Alienist.

Featured image: Zsuzsanna Sipos, visual designer, and Patrice Vermette, Canadian production designer, after receiving the Best Production Design award for Dune at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London on March 13, 2022. Photo by Neil Hall/MTI/EPA