Critically acclaimed director Wes Anderson is this year’s recipient of the Eva Monley Award. Ms. Monley was the go-to person to scout and organize logistics in remote locations for John Huston, Otto Preminger, and David Lean. Immensely curious, capable and self-reliant, Eva thrived in a peripatetic film career spanning 50 years. Her credits include Lawrence of Arabia, The African Queen, Exodus, and The Man Who Would Be King.
Actress Anjelica Huston remarked on the poignancy of Wes receiving the Award named after her father’s intrepid location scout. “Being on location with Wes is always interesting. There is a surreal combination of practical locations magically transformed into a very particular, self-contained world. It’s a privilege to move through the precise landscapes he creates.”
From a small New England island to the Grand Budapest Hotel, from a quixotic quest through India, to the world below the sea, the distinctive works of filmmaker Wes Anderson seamlessly blend the world of his imagination with practical locations.
Wes has an intuitive way with locations. Klaus Darrelman, winner the 2015 LMGI Award for Outstanding Locations In a Period Film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, explains, “Working with Wes Anderson was one of the best experiences I’ve had. It’s fascinating to scout with him because Wes isn’t interested in following a detailed schedule. He’s exploratory. He prefers to veer off track. While scouting he was always open to suggestions and I had the feeling he was more “taking things in” rather than expecting to find this one location that would fit the picture in his head.”
Working as a director, producer, and screenwriter, six time Academy Award nominee Wes Anderson has cultivated a characteristic visual and narrative style. Locations play an integral part in the visual richness and tone of his films, as he retouches reality, creating idiosyncratic worlds. Anderson’s capers and comedies provide an artful, ordered, often symmetrical escapism, marked by whimsy and tinged with a sweet melancholy.
Wes Anderson’s work includes The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Rushmore.