Patrizia von Brandenstein

Production designer Patrizia von Brandenstein began her film career in 1972 with a debut screen credit as a set decorator on the acclaimed drama The Candidate and subsequently worked as both a scenic artist and costume designer, with credits including Between the Lines and Saturday Night Fever (both 1977).

In 1985, von Brandenstein won the Academy Award for her vividly detailed rendering of the age of Mozart for Amadeus (1984). In 1988, von Brandenstein received her third Oscar nomination for Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987) and further distinguished herself with her work on the teen musical Beat Street (1984), the high-society comedy-drama Six Degrees of Separation (1993), and a return to the West for The Quick and the Dead (1995).

Von Brandenstein worked with director Mike Nichols on Silkwood (1983), Working Girl (1988), and Postcards from the Edge (1990). Her additional production credits include A Chorus Line (1985), Billy Bathgate (1991), Sneakers (1992), Leap of Faith (1992), Just Cause (1995), The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), and Mercury Rising (1998), as well as A Simple Plan (1998), Man on the Moon (1999), Shaft (2000), The Ice Harvest (2005), All the King’s Men (2006), and Goya’s Ghosts (2006). Von Brandenstein worked on the historical drama The Last Station (2009), directed by Michael Hoffman, for whom she designed The Emperor’s Club in 2002. She also worked on Neil Burger’s Limitless (2011) and on Violet & Daisy (2011), the directing debut of Geoffrey Fletcher, Oscar-winning screenwriter of Precious (2009). She worked on Albert Nobbs (2011), an adaptation of a one-woman play, directed by Rodrigo Garcia and starring Glenn Close and Mia Wasikowska, and David Mamet’s Phil Spector (2013) for HBO.

Her other production credits include the pilot of The Night Of (2016), directed by Steven Zaillian, Words and Pictures (2013), the miniseries Houdini (2014), and season 1 of The Last Tycoon (2016-17). Von Brandenstein has recently worked on Julia (2022) for HBO Max.