Variety Names 10 Artisans to Watch, Honored at SCAD Savannah

By Daniel Okafor

Variety will honor its 10 Artisans to Watch at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, running Oct. 24–31. The list rewards the people who finish what directors start. Past picks have form: last year's honorees — "Sinners" cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, "KPop Demon Hunters" songwriter EJAE and "One Battle After Another" editor Andy Jurgensen — all went on to win Oscars.

The 2026 class covers sound, animation, production design, editing, cinematography, composition, casting, makeup, costume design and art direction. Here is what the honorees actually did.

What did the sound editor find in a rifle?

Anne Jimkes, supervising sound editor on "The Mosquito Bowl," researched the exact weapons of the Pacific Theater, including the M1 Garand rifle. Its metallic "ping" is not decoration. "It adds a sense of urgency, and it's a decision-making moment," Jimkes says — the sound tells a soldier when to reload or fight hand to hand. She calls her layering method a "parade of sound" and notes the brain "is very good at processing rapidly successive sounds."

How do you animate a rock with feelings?

Aulo Licinio, animation supervisor on "Project Hail Mary," built a physical language for Rocky, an alien creature with no face or eyes. His team studied early puppetry and silent-film stars like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Rocky expresses shyness by pulling an elbow in front of himself, and sometimes a five-degree head tilt does the work. "[Rocky's puppeteer and voice] James Ortiz did a good job getting expressions out of this rock," Licinio says. "It's a collaboration at the end."

Who else made the list?

• Landon Lott, art director of "Pluribus" and a SCAD alum, designed a Norwegian ice hotel built entirely on stage, taking inspiration from Sweden's ICEHOTEL and hotels in Norway and Finland.
• Blair McClendon, editor of "Clarissa," compares editing to music and knew he was done when the team had "emotionally exhausted the avenues of what you're trying to make." The film stars David Oyelowo, Sophie Okonedo and Ayo Edebiri, directed by Arie and Chuko Esiri.
• Adam Newport-Berra shot two films this season: "The Invite," directed by and starring Olivia Wilde, and "Club Kid," directed by and starring Jordan Firstman. On "The Invite," he used lens choice to make a single apartment feel "flat and claustrophobic" or "intimate, gentle, sexy and seductive."
• Raül Refree, composer of Netflix's "La Bola Negra," tied instruments to characters, not eras: trumpet for Sebastián, piano and strings for Carlos, and, for Alberto's present-day crisis, silence.
• Jessica Ronane, casting director of "Elsinore," cast a play-within-a-film about London's National Theatre in 1989, pairing Andrew Scott as Ian Charleson with David Dawson as Derek Jarman, and Olivia Colman as Margaret.
• Allie Shehorn, makeup and special effects head on "Obsession," built multiple versions of Sarah's head for a face-smash sequence and gave Nikki the same lipstick and eyeliner shades as Sarah to chart her fixation.
• Grace Snell, costume designer on "Sense and Sensibility," blended modern styling with Regency-era accuracy and had the Dashwood sisters share and rework garments, with help from a dress historian.
• Danny Vermette, production designer of "Backrooms," translated Kane Parsons' YouTube series — over 200 million views — into a 1990s period piece with 375 individual lenses and troffers and 32 identical couches.

Why does the list matter?

Variety frames the honor as a forecast, not a pat on the head. If last year's Oscar sweep is any guide, the SCAD stage in October is where several 2027 campaigns will quietly begin.