Hasta La Ideas

In the poster for this year’s Oscars ceremony, the famous statuette has been recast by illustrator Olly Moss to reference every Best Picture winner from the last 85 years

Moss says the brief (which came via Gallery 1988) was one of the hardest he has ever had. He had to come up with a suitable pose for each Best Picture-winner, from Wings to The Artist (cleverly depicted in black and white).

The poster is full of nice touches – the image above shows the roll call of winners from 1958 (Gigi) to 1985 (Out of Africa). For Billy Wilder’s The Apartment (1960, top row, third from left) Moss recalls Jack Lemmon’s habit of using a tennis racket to strain spaghetti, while the Artful Dodger represents Oliver! (far left, middle row).

The Apartment (1960) and Deer Hunter (1978) as depicted by Olly Moss

“It’s all just drawn with a Wacom in Photoshop,” Moss says. “I made standard templates for male/female/child and then drew the extra details over the top. The statuette template I made was based on the huge statue they wheel out for the ceremony every year. It’s a little more refined than the award so it withstood a bit more detail/ customisation.”

“Gallery 1988 ran the campaign. I’ve shown there and worked with them before on this sort of thing. They hired me to do this poster. The brief was tough – it was pretty open with the one caveat that I had to somehow reference all of, or most, of the Best Picture Winners from the past 85 years.”

How long did it all take? “A bloody long time!” Moss says “I was working 16 hour days for about three weeks solid. I was on schedule before my computer died in mid January, which ballsed things up a tad.”

Moss says the hardest film to come up with an idea for was 1947-winner Gentleman’s Agreement. “If you haven’t seen it, it’s a film about a man disguising himself as a Jew to experience/uncover prejudice. Quite a hard thing to sum up sensitively on a 2″ tall statue.”

Favourites? “Hurt Locker was fun to do. I also like the one for The Greatest Show on Earth because I’m a big Jimmy Stewart fan and will happily take any excuse to draw him.”

The Hurt Locker (2009) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

CR in Print
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