George Miller’s dystopian action thriller Mad Max: Fury Road won six major technical categories at the 88th Academy Awards. It won the Oscar for Best Costume Design, Production Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, Film Editing, and both Sound Mixing and Editing.
Starring Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, the film was nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture and best director.
Margaret Sixel, who is Miller’s wife, won best editing for the film. She mined through 480 hours of footage for three months to get the film ready.
She has cut several of the director’s films including Happy Feet and Babe: Pig in the City. The film’s costume designer Jenny Beavan spoke about the socio-political undertones of the film in her acceptance speech.
“What another lovely day,” she said, quoting one of the film lines.
“It could be horribly pathetic (like the world of Mad Max) if we’re not kinder to each other and we don’t stop polluting our atmosphere.”
This was the first win for production designer Colin Gibson and set decorator Lisa Thompson, who were charged with building Miller’s world from the ground up with designer and storyboard artist Peter Pound, assembling its dazzling array of muscle vehicles.
It never ceases to annoy me how many people it takes to make me look competent.Colin Gibson
“You can pop the corks at home – we’re bringing home gold,” makeup and hair stylist Lesley Vanderwalt said.
The Oscar for sound editing went to Mark Mangini and David White, while best sound mixing was shared between Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff and Ben Osmo.
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