 |
Simon Bowles | |
|---|---|
 Production Designer Simon Bowles | |
| Born | 7 June 1971 London |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Production Designer |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Children | Indy Bowles Pippa Bowles |
Simon Bowles (7 June 1971, London) is a British feature film production designer. Bowles has worked with directors Armando Iannucci, Amma Asante, Oliver Parker, Roger Michell, Edgar Wright and Neil Marshall. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
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Bowles designed the underground maze of caves built at Pinewood Studios for The Descent , which won accolades at the Evening Standard British Film Awards, Empire Awards, British Independent Film Awards and Philadelphia Film Festival. Reviews credited to Bowles such as "cave sets by production designer Simon Bowles look just like the real thing" and "Simon Bowles’ beautifully designed cave sets conjure a world of subterranean darkness". [1] [2]
In 2012 Simon Bowles designed Roger Michell's "Hyde Park on Hudson" starring Bill Murray, set in 1930s Upstate New York about a British royal family visiting the US and their stay with Franklin Roosevelt, shot entirely in the UK. Bowles's work was mentioned in reviews; "handsomely decked out with a sharp eye for telling eye for production design" by Todd McCarthy in The Hollywood Reporter and "Hyde Park on Hudson boasts top-notch production design" by Geoffrey MacNabb in The Independent and "excellent production design from Simon Bowles completes this dreamy, impeccable film" by Clare Stuart, BFI. Bowles went on to win the British Film Designers Guild award for his design of this film.
Simon Bowles designed Amma Asante's "Belle (2013 film)" set in 18th-century Kenwood House, London and "Pride (2014 film)" about English gay and lesbian group supporting the striking miners in the 1980s. Both films received rave reviews and many awards including Best Feature Film at the 2014 British Independent Film Awards and nominations at the 2015 BAFTA awards for Pride.
Between 2013 and 2015 Simon Bowles was the elected chairman of The British Film Designers Guild which represents and promotes the creative talent of Production Designers and the art department in the British film industry.
Simon Bowles worked with Amma Asante again on "A United Kingdom" which tells the true story of the relationship between Seretse Khama, the chief to be of the Bamangwato tribe in the British colony of Bechuanaland in the late 1940s, and a white, middle-class Englishwoman, Ruth Williams. It stars David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike directed by Amma Asante produced by Rick McCallum. It was released in the UK in October 2016, US release in February 2017.
Simon Bowles won at the British Film Designers Guild awards in 2019 for his work on Universal Pictures Johnny English Strikes Again starring Rowan Atkinson.
Bowles designed The Son (2022 film) written and directed by Florian Zeller, starring Laura Dern, Hugh Jackman and Anthony Hopkins and is currently working on A Quiet Place: Day One created by John Krasinski, written and directed by Michael Sarnoski, produced by Paramount Players, Sunday Night Productions and Platinum Dunes.
The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is a film, television and games school established in 1971 and based at Beaconsfield Studios in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. It is featured in the 2021 ranking by The Hollywood Reporter of the top 15 international film schools.
George Richard Ian Howe Fenton, known professionally as George Fenton, is an English composer. Best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, he has received five Academy Award nominations, several Ivor Novello, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy and BMI Awards, and a Classic BRIT. He is one of 18 songwriters and composers to have been made a Fellow of the Ivors Academy.
Alexandra Byrne is an English costume designer and set designer. Much of her career has focused on creating costumes for period dramas. These films include Persuasion (1995), Hamlet (1996), Elizabeth (1998), Finding Neverland (2004), The Phantom of the Opera (2004), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Mary Queen of Scots (2018), The Aeronauts (2019), and Emma. (2020). She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design six times, winning once for Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
Roger Harry Michell was a British theatre, television and film director. He was best known for directing films such as Notting Hill and Venus, as well as the 1995 made-for-television film Persuasion.
Tony Gardner is an American makeup designer, special effects designer and puppeteer. He has designed and created effects for many feature films, including the films Zombieland, 127 Hours, Smokin' Aces, Hairspray, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, The Addams Family, Seed of Chucky,Shallow Hal and There's Something About Mary. Gardner helped create the signature helmets for Daft Punk, as well as an animatronic robot for their "Technologic" music video. He wrote and directed Daft Punk's music video for the song "The Prime Time of Your Life," which also, his two daughters were in and associate produced and populated a world full of robots for the duo's feature-length directorial debut, Daft Punk's Electroma. Beyond the film-making arena, Gardner's special effects company Alterian, Inc. has also designed and created the popular GEICO Cavemen characters as well as the current iteration of Smokey Bear. Alterian's makeup effects for Johnny Knoxville's character in Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa were nominated for an Academy Award as well as a Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild Award, and won the Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild Award for Best Special Makeup Effects in the Feature Film category for 2014.
Amma Asante is a British filmmaker, screenwriter, former actress, and Chancellor at Norwich University of the Arts, who was born in London to parents from Ghana. Her love for the film industry started when she received her first role in BBC's children's television drama series Grange Hill. Asante wrote and produced the 1998 BBC Two television series Brothers and Sisters, starring David Oyelowo. She was a childhood friend of model Naomi Campbell, whom she met when they were seven years old.
Arthur Max is an American production designer.
Sarah Greenwood is a British production designer.
Lindy Hemming is a Welsh costume designer. In a career spanning over four decades, she is recognized for her prolific work across independent films and blockbusters. She won an Academy Award in the category Best Costume Design for the film Topsy-Turvy (1999).
Muse Entertainment, commonly referred to as Muse, is one of the largest independent film and television production companies in Canada. It was founded by Michael Prupas in 1998.
Marilyn Vance is an American costume designer and filmmaker.
Hyde Park on Hudson is a 2012 historical drama film directed by Roger Michell. The film stars Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Samuel West as King George VI, Olivia Colman as his wife Queen Elizabeth and Laura Linney as Margaret "Daisy" Suckley, a cousin and childhood friend of the President. It was based on Suckley's private journals and diaries, discovered after her death and fictionally dramatizes her close relationship with Roosevelt and the 1939 visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth to Roosevelt's country estate.
Belle is a 2013 British period drama film directed by Amma Asante, written by Misan Sagay and produced by Damian Jones. It stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tom Wilkinson, Miranda Richardson, Penelope Wilton, Sam Reid, Matthew Goode, Emily Watson, Sarah Gadon, Tom Felton, and James Norton.
Dany Cooper is an Australian film editor, best known for her work on Candy, Queen of the Damned and The Sapphires. Cooper is a member of the ASE guild.
Kevin Loader is a British film and television producer. Since 1996, he and co-owner Roger Michell have run a London-based production company, Free Range Films, through which the pair have made several feature films directed by Michell, including The Mother, Enduring Love, Venus, Hyde Park on Hudson, and Le Week-end. Their most recent film is an adaptation by Michell of Daphne Du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel. The company is also developing and producing film and television projects with other directors. Loader was awarded the Bafta for Best Television Serial in 2015 for The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies.
A United Kingdom is a 2016 biographical romantic drama film directed by Amma Asante and written by Guy Hibbert, based on the true-life romance of Seretse Khama, heir to the throne of the Bangwato Tribe in Serowe – one of many tribes found in then Bechuanaland Protectorate – with his wife Ruth Williams Khama. David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike portray Seretse and Ruth, respectively.
Misan Sagay is a British-Nigerian screenwriter, best known for the 2013 film Belle.
Gary Kordan is an American production designer and television producer. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on the fifth and final season of Key & Peele.
The National Film Awards UK are presented in an annual award show hosted by the National Film Academy (NFA). As of 2015, it has taken place in Central London at the Porchester Hall. The most recent 9th National Film Awards UK was held on 4 July 2023.
Odile Dicks-Mireaux is a British costume designer. Her work include productions for both cinema like the Academy Award-nominated films An Education (2009) and Brooklyn (2015) and television like the BBC One drama The Lost Prince and the HBO miniseries Chernobyl (2019), receiving an Emmy Award for the former and a BAFTA Craft Award for the latter.