It was early Monday morning in Hungary when the 2024 Academy Awards were handed out in Los Angeles, and set decorator Zsuzsa Mihalek won the Oscar for Best Production Design for her work on Poor Things.
The award is traditionally shared by the set decorator and the production designer, so Mihalek shares the Oscar for Best Production Design with James Price and Shona Heath. A few weeks ago, the team already won the BAFTA for their work on Poor Things, but Mihalek was not in London to accept the award and also missed the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles.
In their acceptance speech, Price and Heath mentioned that they regretted that "Zsuzsi" was not there.
Two years ago, Zsuzsanna Sipos won in the same category as a set designer.
Zsuzsa Mihalek started her career as a set designer in the 1980s, working on Hungarian films such as Csinibaba, Werckmeister Harmonies and Argo. She also worked as a set designer in several foreign productions shot in Hungary (Atomic Blonde, Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy, and Don't Breathe).
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