Variety Names 2026 Artisans to Watch for SCAD Fest — SkimNews
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- Variety announced its 2026 Artisans to Watch list, honoring 10 below-the-line creatives whose work spanned 2026 blockbusters like "The Odyssey" and "Project Hail Mary" plus lower-budget films like "Backrooms" and "Obsession." The honorees will be celebrated at SCAD Savannah Film Festival running Oct. 24-31.
- Past honorees routinely translate Variety's list into Oscar hardware: last year's class — "Sinners" DP Autumn Durald Arkapaw, "KPop Demon Hunters" songwriter EJAE and "One Battle After Another" editor Andy Jurgensen — all won Oscars, establishing the Artisans list as a credible awards precursor.
- Anne Jimkes, supervising sound editor on "The Mosquito Bowl," built a "parade of sound" around the M1 Garand rifle's distinctive metallic "ping," which she used both for historical authenticity and to signal when a soldier must reload or switch weapons.
- Aulo Licinio, animation supervisor on "Project Hail Mary," gave the faceless alien Rocky emotional life by channeling silent-film performers like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, distinguishing shy from alert with elbow placements and head tilts measured in as little as five degrees.
- Landon Lott, art director on "Pluribus," designed a stage-built Norwegian ice hotel — initially planned with a lobby, foyer, bar and guest rooms — referencing real ICEHOTELs in Sweden, Norway and Finland before handing designs to ice sculptors.
- Raül Refree composed a score for Netflix's "La Bola Negra" by assigning instruments to characters rather than eras — trumpet for Sebastián, piano for Carlos, near-silence for present-day Alberto — then merging those timbres as the three queer men's stories intersect.
- Blair McClendon edited "Clarissa" like music by cutting where the beat falls, including one shot preserved only because a rooster crowed at exactly the right moment to keep the take alive.
Why it matters: The Artisans list is Variety's proven Oscar hunting ground — three of last year's ten picks won Academy Awards, giving this year's class real awards-season leverage. For the honorees themselves, the SCAD celebration (Oct. 24-31) becomes a launchpad: sound editors, animators, art directors and composers whose work doesn't get top-billed billing suddenly have a campaign platform for the spring precursor circuit.
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