Hannah Beachler

Hannah E. Beachler is an American production designer. The first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Production Design, she is known for her Afrofuturist design direction of Marvel Studios film series Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Beachler has been involved in numerous projects directed by Beyoncé, including Lemonade and Black Is King.

She also worked on the 2015 Rocky film Creed, the Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead (2015), and Moonlight (2016). She graduated from the University of Cincinnati, studying fashion design. She attended Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, where she studied film. Fruitvale Station won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Film and the Audience Award for Best Film at the Sundance Film Festival in 2013.

For Creed, Beachler watched the first four Rocky films for inspiration. She was responsible for designing Front Street Gym that appears prominently in the film. She visited a number of gyms across the United States, but particularly in Philadelphia where the film series is based, in order to get a good idea of what the set should look like. She designed the entire gym including the professionally-sized boxing ring, and her plans ensured that cameras could get a 360-degree view of everything.

For the outdoor scenes in Miles Ahead, Beachler searched through numerous photograph archives to accurately capture the scenes in New York City from the 1950s to the 1970s, but ultimately took inspiration from some silent film shot from a car window, that was posted on YouTube decades later. as well as the first to win the category.

Beachler was lead curator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition Before Yesterday We Could Fly: An Afrofuturist Period Room, which opened in 2021. Working with commissioners such as Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Jenn Nkiru, Beachler designed this space in hopes that it would embody, "Black imagination, excellence, and self-determination...".

In 2023, she worked on the production design of Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé.

Filmography

Film Fruitvale Station (2013) The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) Creed (2015) Miles Ahead (2015) Lemonade (2016) Moonlight (2016) Black Panther (2018) No Sudden Move (2021) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé (2023) Sinners (2025)

Television

On the Run Tour: Beyoncé and Jay-Z (2014)

Awards and nominations Year Award Title of work Category Result 2016 Primetime Emmy AwardsLemonadeOutstanding Production Design for Variety, Nonfiction, Event or Award Special 2017 ADG Awards Excellence in Production Design for an Awards or Event Special 2018Hollywood Film AwardsBlack PantherProduction Designer of the Year Los Angeles Film Critics AssociationBest Production Design San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics CircleBest Production Design St. Louis Film Critics AssociationBest Production Design Washington D.C. Area Film Critics AssociationBest Production Design Saturn AwardsBest Production Design 2019 Academy Awards Best Production Design ADG Awards Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Film Black Reel AwardsOutstanding Production Design Critics' Choice AwardsBest Production Design 2020 ADG Awards Black Is King Excellence in Production Design for a Variety Special SDSA AwardsBest Achievement in Decor/Design of a Variety Special 2022 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Best Production Design Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards Best Production Design 2023 ADG Awards Excellence in Production Design for a Fantasy Feature Film African-American Film Critics Association Awards Building Change Award Black Reel Awards Outstanding Production Design Critics' Choice Movie Awards Best Production Design Georgia Film Critics Association Best Production Design Hollywood Critics Association Creative Arts Awards Best Production Design San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle Awards Best Production Design Set Decorators Society of America Awards Best Achievement in Decor/Design of a Science Fiction or Fantasy Feature Film Hollywood Music in Media AwardsLadies First: A Story of Women in Hip-Hop Best Music Documentary – Special Program 2024 Black Reel AwardsRenaissance: A Film by BeyoncéOutstanding Production Design 2026Academy AwardsSinnersBest Production Design