Inside the Sets of This Year’s Golden Globe–Winning Productions

Awards season is now well under way, and on January 5, the biggest stars in both film and television gathered in Beverly Hills for the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Hosted by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Golden Globes is generally known not only as the first big awards show after the new year, but also as the most fun and lively, due to the fact that attendees are allowed to drink during the ceremony (which is not the case at the Oscars).

This time around perhaps seemed a bit less fun than years past—Ricky Gervais’s hosting hasn’t garnered rave reviews, and there was a somber mood as celebrities talked about the tragic fires in Australia. Still, Beyoncé and Jay-Z provided a viral moment after they skipped the red carpet and turned up fashionably late to the ceremony with their own Armand de Brignac champagne in tow (her song “Spirit” from The Lion King was nominated for best original song from a motion picture). And of course, there were plenty of touching and even historic acceptance speeches from Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, Awkwafina, Renée Zellweger, and more.

With so many categories to get through for both film and television, the Globes does not give out a prize for best set design, but plenty of the movies and shows honored last night were no doubt elevated by the sets on which they were filmed. Below, AD looks back at some of the winning productions we toured this year.

Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino’s flick about 1969 Hollywood was the most-awarded of the night, taking home the trophies for best motion picture, musical or comedy; best screenplay; and best performance by an actor in a supporting role for Brad Pitt. In the film, Pitt plays the stunt double of movie star Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), who is grappling with the end of his Hollywood heyday. Hollywood is truly the star of the show, and real locations all over Los Angeles—including the Playboy Mansion and Musso and Frank Grill—were dressed up to fit the time period. “It’s Quentin’s love letter to the city he grew up in,” the film’s production designer, Barbara Ling, told AD in July.

Joker

The backstory of one of the most notorious Batman villains earned Joaquin Phoenix the best-actor prize for a drama. Obviously, this story takes place in Gotham City, but to make the fictional place a reality, production designer Mark Friedberg used New York as a backdrop, selecting an Art Deco building in the Bronx for the titular character’s apartment and finding inspiration from films like Taxi Driver. “Everywhere [Joker] turns, he’s facing some version of abuse, whether it’s bullying underground on the subway or kids stealing from him on the street,” Friedberg previously told AD. “This has a direct effect on his actions. So, in a way, the dysfunction of Gotham is a character.”

Rocketman

As Taron Egerton accepted the top prize for his role in Rocketman, the camera panned to a beaming Elton John. The living legend and his husband, David Furnish, have been along for the ride since before filming began on the biopic, when production designer Marcus Rowland and set decorator Jude Farr visited their home in Windsor, England, to get a sense of their style. “Elton did come down and we talked him through the general approach that we would take,” Rowland told AD. “But he was very much of the mind of ‘Surprise me’ rather than ‘I tell you that this is okay.’ He just wanted to be refreshingly inspired, really.”

Parasite

The winner of best motion picture, foreign language also has one of the best sets of the year. Director Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite is about one poor family and one wealthy family, with much of the film taking place in the rich family's sleek and modern home, which was built by and previously belonged to a fictional architect in the story. “They want to show off that they have this sophisticated taste,” Bong told AD. For the film, the whole first floor and garden of the fictional home were built in an empty lot (the rest was built on sets), and the walls were even outfitted with real pieces by Korean artist Seung-mo Park.

Succession

This HBO drama (which took home two awards, including best television series, drama) is all about the upper echelon of wealth, so it required production designer Stephen Carter and set decorator George DeTitta Jr. to find some seriously opulent shooting locations. “The quality of craftsmanship, the level of decor, and even simple access to mind-numbing square footages are all really important in showing the world of the uber-rich,” Carter told AD. In season two of the show, the Roy family summer home was filmed at Henry Ford II’s $175 million Hamptons estate, and Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York, played a Hungarian hunting lodge.

The Crown

Olivia Colman took home the best-actress prize for her role as Queen Elizabeth II. And to create the world of the monarch for the hit Netflix show, it took production designer Martin Childs and set decorator Alison Harvey some 400 sets, where they built replicas of Buckingham Palace; Princess Margaret’s stops on her tour of the United States and her house in Mustique, Les Jolies Eaux; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s French estate; the White House; and more. “I like to think that the architecture helps out the storytelling and vice versa,” Childs told AD.

Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest