Jeannine Oppewall
b. 1946 · 36 titles in the catalogue
Jeannine Oppewall entered the film industry in the late 1970s after a six-year association with the great design innovators, Charles and Ray Eames. She worked as a set designer (Blue Collar, Blow Out, The Rose, Honky Tonk Freeway) before rising to the position of production designer in 1983 with Tender Mercies, the modestly budgeted ‘slice of life’ film, which brought Robert Duvall an Academy Award.
For the next several years, Ms Oppewall designed an impressive variety of motion pictures for a diverse list of directors, many with international credentials. These range from the Russian Andrei Konchalovsky (Maria’s Lovers) and the Brazilian Hector Babenco (Ironweed), to include Costa-Gavras (The Music Box) and Luis Mandoki (White Palace). Other credits include Love Letters, The Big Easy, Rooftops, Wonder Boys and Sibling Rivalry.
Other films for which she is known are Seabiscuit (starring Jeff Bridges), Catch Me if You Can (Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio), The Sum of All Fears (starring Morgan Freeman), and Robert DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd, released at the end of 2006.
Claudia has received 4 Oscar Award nominations for her films and received the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Production Design, 1998 for Pleasantville. She also won the Art Directors’ Guild’s award for Excellence in Production Design for Catch Me If You Can, and was nominated for 5 others of her films for the same. She served on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 9 years and is currently the co-chairperson of its Museum Committee.
Their work
36
Catch Me If You Can2002Production Design
L.A. Confidential1997Production Design
Primal Fear1996Production Design
The Happening2008Production Design
The Bridges of Madison County1995Production Design
The Sum of All Fears2002Production Design
Pleasantville1998Production Design
Blow Out1981Set Designer
Deep Water2022Production Design
The Good Shepherd2006Production Design
How Do You Know2010Production Design
Seabiscuit2003Production Design
Wonder Boys2000Production Design
Cat People1982Set Designer
The Vanishing1993Production Design
Rules Don't Apply2016Production Design
Corrina, Corrina1994Production Design
Wakefield2017Production Design
School Ties1992Production Design
5 to 72014Production Design
Peacock2010Production Design
The Big Easy1986Production Design
Blue Collar1978as Woman with Bicycle (uncredited)
White Palace1990Production Design
Music Box1989Production Design · Set Designer
Desert Hearts1985Production Design
Last Days in the Desert2016Production Design
Tender Mercies1983Art Direction
Snow Falling on Cedars1999Production Design
The Face of Love2013Production Design
Ironweed1987Production Design
Waking Up in Reno2002Production Design
Losing Isaiah1995Production Design
Racing with the Moon1984Set Designer
Catch Me If You Can: Behind the Camera2003as Self
An Old Fashioned Love Story: Making 'The Bridges of Madison County'2008as Self
