Hollywood, hold my Louboutins. The new set design exhibit at the Academy Museum is a knockout. It doesn’t just show you how movies are made, it pulls you straight into the story. From the raw, sweeping drama of Anna Karenina to the lush, feminist fairytale of Beauty and the Beast and finally the bold, bubblegum brilliance of Barbie, this exhibit flows like a movie itself. It is breathtaking in its precision, moving seamlessly from light to dark in a way that feels both emotional and deliberate.
I’ve truly never experienced an exhibit this beautifully constructed or intentionally staged.
You don’t just admire the sets. You walk through them. You feel the emotional arc. You see the craft and by the time you hit the interactive space, you’re not just learning about Hollywood. You’re becoming part of it.
Stepping Into Anna Karenina’s World
The first step into the set design exhibit feels like you’ve walked backstage into the emotional core of a broken heart. Anna Karenina doesn’t ease you in. It grabs you by the soul and pulls you into a world where the walls breathe grief and elegance all at once. The space is dim, intimate and deeply theatrical. You’re not just looking at a movie set. You’re standing in the center of a stage where love, betrayal and beauty play out in real time.
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer took Joe Wright’s bold decision to shoot the film almost entirely inside a derelict theater and made it sing. Instead of building separate sets for train stations, frozen rivers or horse tracks, they transformed one theatrical space into many. And somehow it works. You don’t see the limits. You see the story stretching out in every direction.
The 1:25 scale model on display is a scene-stealer all on its own. Built with exquisite detail, it shows how the film’s biggest transitions from ballroom to train station to skating rink were choreographed like a ballet. There’s even a moment where you realize that you’re standing above the frozen river where Anna’s tragedy unfolds, and it stops you cold. The detail in the furniture, the snow texture and the lighting design makes the entire scene feel like it’s still in motion.
Concept art on the wall brings everything full circle. You see the vision before it came to life, lit with bold and deliberate contrast. Warm golds give way to harsh shadows. Lavish chandeliers hang over aching silences. The beauty is almost too much which is exactly the point. This part of the set design exhibit is about mood. Emotion. Melodrama. It’s about showing how femininity isn’t just style. It’s structure.
Greenwood and Spencer said it best: The beauty of making a film is anything is possible. And in this section, they don’t just say it. They prove it.
Walking Into a Fairytale at the set design exhibit:
The Beauty and the Beast Room
If Anna Karenina was velvet and grief, Beauty and the Beast is where the fantasy blooms. You enter through wine-colored drapes into a world of chandeliers, frost and golden scrollwork where sadness clings to everything but still makes room for hope. Center stage is the enchanted rose sealed in a hand-etched Swarovski bell jar that feels more like a living heartbeat than a prop. It’s grief, love and magic captured in crystal.
Everything in this room screams transformation. There’s the painting the Beast shredded in a fit of rage slashed straight through the face of his former self. There’s the walking light still dusted in snow. And there’s the ornate piano and matching stool regal as hell quietly commanding attention in a space where feminine energy is the real power source.
The supporting cast? Absolute scene stealers. Cogsworth is built like a nervous little general with the gait of a French bulldog. Lumière’s got the swagger. Even the feather duster gets her due. She’s all sensual curves and soft white plumage like the designers knew she was too often overlooked and said “not this time.” Greenwood and Spencer built these characters to feel human, flawed and alive.
The whole room softens as you move through it shifting from icy fear to warm light. It’s not just about falling in love. It’s about choosing to grow choosing softness and reclaiming beauty on your own terms. Belle wasn’t rescued by love. She walked into a haunted castle saw its sorrow and stayed anyway. The room reflects that exact energy. That’s not decoration. That’s design with teeth.
From Ice Palaces to Plastic Paradise: How Greenwood and Spencer Brought Barbie to Life
After the opulence of Anna Karenina and the emotional weight of Beauty and the Beast, stepping into Barbie’s world is like crashing into a glitter bomb. In the best way. The exhibit at the Academy Museum shifts gears entirely. Here, production designers Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer didn’t just build sets. They built an unapologetically artificial world based on director Greta Gerwig’s vision. No water, no electricity, no black, no white, and no chrome.
This world is ruled by plastic, pastel, and play. It doesn’t just look like a toy box. It feels like one.
The Barbieland beach boardwalk is the crown jewel. Think giant pink buildings, wavy beaches, palm trees with visible seams, and The Electra Theater, where The Wizard of Oz plays on loop. That’s not just a cute nod. It’s a full-circle moment for cinematic fantasy. The backdrop painting of Barbieland pulls you into a synthetic dream with mountains that look airbrushed and sunsets that feel laminated. You’re not in Kansas anymore, but you’re definitely in a world where Kansas still matters.
One of the most striking moments in the set design exhibit is the hand-painted Barbieland backdrop, which feels like stepping through a rainbow into a parallel universe where pink is a lifestyle and glitter is a civic duty. Designed in 2022 as concept art for the film, this sweeping vista, complete with a Barbie-branded Hollywood-style sign and cotton candy skies, sets the tone for the entire experience. It’s not just set design, it’s world-building on a mythic scale. And seeing it up close? You realize just how much love and precision went into creating something that feels so artificial yet somehow real. It’s joy in panorama form.
What ties it all together is the emotional intelligence behind every single object. Greenwood and Spencer aren’t just building sets. They’re building feelings. Barbieland may look ridiculous, but it’s a study in power, performance and memory. That balance between whimsy and meaning is exactly why this team continues to reshape what production design can do.
Inside the Blank Space:
Where Barbie’s World Was Born
Greenwood and Spencer call it “the blank space,” but don’t be fooled. This was no sterile office. It was the heart of production design for Barbie, a creative nerve center cluttered with sketches, color swatches, pink post-its, and caffeine. Walls were layered in visual references and storyboards while desks spilled over with notes, schedules, and fabric scraps. The vibe is a glorious chaos of ideas on the edge of transformation.
This recreated workspace in the set design exhibit lets you stand in the very place where some of Barbie’s most iconic visual moments first took shape. There’s no water, no chrome, and definitely no whiteboards here. Just lived-in design energy that screams “tactile is power.” It’s not about aesthetic for aesthetic’s sake. It’s about how set design builds the emotional logic of a film. That’s what Greenwood and Spencer do best to take whimsy seriously.
At the end of the gallery, visitors are invited to try their own hand at worldbuilding. There’s a model set, tiny furniture, and bold instructions: press a button, pick a backdrop, and create a scene. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s to get your hands on the tools of storytelling and see how space can speak. The message is loud and clear that the environments we build matter.
That sentiment is echoed one last time on the glass wall: “Why do you keep doing what you do?” The answer? “Nobody stopped us.” Greenwood and Spencer didn’t wait for permission. They made a space. Then they made magic and this captured so beautifully in this set design exhibit.
Final Take: Set Design exhibit Is Storytelling
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer don’t just build sets. They build worlds that breathe. From the opulent chill of Beauty and the Beast to the glossy surrealism of Barbie, their work gives characters a stage that shapes who they are. These aren’t just pretty backdrops. They’re emotional blueprints. The Academy Museum’s exhibit makes that clear. This isn’t about pink for pink’s sake or castles for the sake of fantasy. It’s about craft, scale, storytelling and the radical imagination of two women who know how to make the unreal feel real.
Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer peels back the curtain on their process, inspirations, and impact. You’ll walk through Barbieland, step into Rococo decay, and see how a blank office became the lab for cinematic magic.
So come for the Dreamhouse. Stay for the Oscar-nominated genius behind it. Plan your visit at academymuseum.org and let the sets do the talking. For other reviews of their latest exhibits, check out our news archive under events.
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