Catherine Martin To Receive The Australian Academy Of Cinema And Television Arts Highest Honour: The Longford Lyell Award

The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) are proud to announce that Costume, Production and Set Designer, Producer and Academy Award winner, Catherine Martin will be honoured for her outstanding global contribution and influence to film, with the Australian Academy’s most prestigious award – the Longford Lyell Award. 

Catherine Martin, the Australian costume designer, production designer and set designer is the most awarded Australian in Oscar history with 4 Oscars, 5 BAFTAs and a Tony Award as well as 5 AFI, 3 AACTA Awards and the Byron Kennedy Award.

Catherine Martin said: "I am humbled and honoured to be this year’s recipient of the Longford Lyell Award. To be recognized by one’s peers in one’s home country is profoundly meaningful.

“Australia, with its myriad filmmaking opportunities and wonderful talents, has been extraordinarily fertile soil for my body of work, and for this I am truly grateful.

“The award also resonates with me personally as its namesakes were, as Baz and I am, both partners in life and art. Baz and I often joke that we are just getting started, so I hope this ‘lifetime achievement award’ is not a full stop, but a comma; heralding the beginning of new and exciting creative adventures to be shared with both long-time collaborators and new artists alike, in front of and behind the camera."

AACTA CEO, Damian Trewhella said, “For over three decades, Catherine Martin has been injecting colour and life onto our screens through visionary artistry and experimental designs. Receiving the Byron Kennedy Award from the Australian Film Institute in 1999, and now the Longford Lyell Award 23 years later exemplifies the dedication she has for her craft. Catherine is held in the highest regard by her peers and audiences globally, and the Australian Academy is proud to honour her for her relentless work and outstanding contribution to the industry."

Catherine Martin has worked alongside husband, chief collaborator, Oscar-nominated director, producer and writer, Baz Luhrmann, to create some of the most prolifically visual and stunning film costumes and sets that are part of global screen folklore.

 Their first collaboration on a feature film was for Strictly Ballroom in 1992 for which she won two Australian Film Institute Awards (AFI) for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. They then went on to create the second of the Red Curtain Trilogy Romeo + Juliet, for which Catherine nominated an Oscar for Best Production Design.

In 2001 Catherine designed the sets and co-designed the costumes with Angus Strathie for Moulin Rouge! and took home two Oscars. Catherine won Broadway’s 2003 Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Musical for her work on Luhrmann’s Broadway adaptation of La Bohème.

In 2008 Martin reunited with Nicole Kidman on the visually breathtaking Australia for which she won two shared AFI Awards for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design with Eliza Godman, and was nominated for an Oscar for costume design. 

Martin oversaw the construction of 42 sets over 14 weeks on The Great Gatsby, earning her two more Oscars, two BAFTAs and two AACTA Awards for Costume Design and Production Design which she shared with Beverly Dunn. 

This year saw the release of Elvis, the larger-than-life biopic of the King, Elvis Presley, which is nominated for 15 AACTA Awards including for Best Film, Best Direction, Best Lead Actor and Martin is nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design alongside Karen Murphy and Beverley Dunn.

First presented in 1968, the Longford Lyell Award honours Australian film pioneer Raymond Longford and his partner in filmmaking and life, Lottie Lyell. The Award is the highest honour that the Australian Academy can bestow upon an individual and recognises a person who has made a truly outstanding contribution to the enrichment of Australia’s screen environment and culture.

The Longford Lyell Award will be presented at the 2022 AACTA Awards which will be broadcast on 10 on Wednesday 7 December at 7:30pm and will be encored on Foxtel’s Fox Docos, Saturday, December 10 at 7:30pm. The broadcast will also be available to stream on demand via Foxtel, Binge and AACTA TV.