Martin Scorcese’s magical tale of the orphan Hugo who tries to make sense of his father’s death is currently sweeping the stakes at the 84th Academy Awards. Below are the speech of the winners so far.

Winner in Cinematography: Robert Richardson

I can’t believe somebody put cinematography up first because it can only go up from this point. I want to thank you all. Marty, you’re a genius as usual and Graham, sticking in there all the way. I’d love to thank Ian, Chris, Gregor, Kanchan, Maya, Beauty, you’re all my family. And to all the past, future and present filmmakers, this is for you.

Winner in Art Direction: Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo

Dante Ferretti: Thank you to the Academy for this prestigious award. A great thank you goes to the producer Graham King and Tim Headington, to all my art department, but the most of all my very special thank you to a eccezionale director who guide us though this wonderful journey: Martin Scorsese. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Grazie, Martin.

Francesca Lo Schiavo: This is for Martin and for Italy.

Backstage, Ferretti and Schiavo answered a few questions to the Oscar news corps.

A. (Dante Ferretti) Today is my birthday and I think this is the most incredible gift I’ve ever been given.

A. (Francesca Lo Schiavo) Happy birthday, Dante.

Q. I was taken to task by Robert Richardson for the simple question that given your track record of working with Scorcese, what was different working in this film, obviously except for the fact there was such a larger component of green screen digitally involved compared to your past movie. How did that make it different?

A. I did eight movies so far with Martin and this is the first time that not only for me but for everybody who worked on this film, for Martin, for Bob Richardson, for everybody. And it was also when we started the movie the movie was supposed to be in normal 2D, but then they decided to do it in 3D. And then we started we did many research with it and we understood to do it in 3D, we have to take more attention for all the detail, for everything, for foreground, for more depth. So anyway, it’s like now, we are in 3D, you work in the middle of the 3D, you see people in front and behind and the end, on the back. So it’s good. I think the work is good enough to be exaggerated. It has to be what I think in HUGO, what Marty did and Marty and Bob Richardson. When you sit in theater, you are, like, inside the screen. This is what I feel, what I saw. This is it.

Q. When you were on stage you mentioned the fact that this was for Italy, and I was wondering for you, do you feel like this award is for your country?

A. (Francesca Lo Schiavo) Yeah.

Q. When did you decide that this profession was for you?  What made you decide?

A. (Francesca Lo Schiavo) Listen, I decide many, many, many years ago and of course I was in Italy, and I was so deeply interested about the decoration and I work in interior design studios, and then, I mean, at the same time I love so much movies. So when I understood that it was possible to do both, I mean, the decoration, movies, so that was the start for of my job, to make decisions about to do this job.

Q. Dante, Francesca, congratulations. This is your third nomination for your third Oscar. What has changed? The nominations are the same year after year, you keep winning everything, you keep doing incredible good work. What does it change in your work and also approach to your winning another Oscar?

A. (Dante Ferretti) Nothing changed, actually. Tomorrow morning I have to wake up very early, I have to go back to work and anyway, it’s good. For me it doesn’t change because this is something important for your work, but for me every time I start a new film it’s like my first one. So for this, when the people ask me when do you go on vacation, for me, I go on vacation when I start a new movie, and this feels very important for me.

Q. And you, Francesca?

A. (Francesca Lo Schiavo) For me, it doesn’t change anything because because just, I mean, I have more enthusiasm for to keep going, keep going.

Q. Congratulations.

Image Courtesy of  Paramount/Jaap Buitendijk

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About the author

Claudia Sondergaard
Specialised in American foreign policy media discourse, I have a real passion for media and writing and feel comfortable in subjects such as human rights, politics, environment, social issues, movies, TV and books. Reporting from Denmark. Follow me @swirlgirlversus