Panels and Workshops

Variety senior artisans editor Jazz Tangcay hosts the fourth annual 10 Artisans to Watch panel, spotlighting the behind-the-scenes artists and rising stars in their fields who were invaluable to the year’s best films. 

After the panel, attendees are invited to a reception in the SCAD Museum of Art courtyard, providing an opportunity to engage with and meet these esteemed honorees. Light refreshments will be served.

About the host
Jazz Tangcay is the senior artisans editor at Variety and covers all crafts below-the-line. She is also on the Awards team analyzing the Emmy Award and Academy Award races. Prior to joining Variety, Jazz worked at Awards Daily, where she covered film and TV and wrote reviews and analysis on the Emmys and Oscar races. She is also a member of the Gold Derby experts.

Honorees

Autumn Durald Arkapaw, cinematographer, Sinners
Autumn Durald Arkapaw is a visionary cinematographer who collaborates with highly visual directors to create lush celluloid landscapes. Her latest work includes Sinners, The Last Showgirl, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — as well as Rihanna’s music video Lift Me Up from the film’s soundtrack — and Loki, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination. In 2022, she became a member of the American Society of Cinematographers and made history as the first woman of color featured on the cover of American Cinematographer magazine. Durald Arkapaw has worked with a range of esteemed collaborators, including Spike Jonze and Max Minghella. Durald Arkapaw’s filmmaking also extends to music videos, having shot projects for Arcade Fire, The Weeknd, Jonas Brothers, Solange, and Haim.

Virginia Berg, art director, Avatar: Fire and Ash
Virginia Berg (M.F.A., production design, 2015) is a Los Angeles-based art director with 10 years of experience in film, television, and music videos. A graduate of the University of Virginia and SCAD — where she was a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts Full Scholarship and SCAD’s Combined Honors Scholarship for Artistic and Academic Merit —her credits include Avatar: The Way of Water; Avatar: Fire and Ash; Dune: Prophecy; Star Trek: Picard; and Beyoncé’s visual album Black Is King. She is currently working as a production designer for Meow Wolf’s upcoming Los Angeles exhibit.

EJAE, songwriter, KPop Demon Hunters
EJAE (Eunjae Kim) is a New York City-based songwriter, vocalist, and artist who is the singing voice of Rumi, the leader of girl group Huntr/x featured in the hit KPop Demon Hunters. In addition to performing all of Rumi's vocals, EJAE played a crucial role in the original soundtrack, writing its record-breaking single “Golden” which topped the Billboard Hot 100. She also wrote several other top 40 tracks from the soundtrack, which became the first album in Billboard history to have four songs simultaneously chart on the top 10. Beyond her work on KPop Demon Hunters, EJAE has written, vocal-directed, and contributed background vocals for several world-renowned K-pop groups.

Andy Jurgensen, editor, One Battle After Another
Film editor Andy Jurgensen began his career in postproduction as an assistant editor on both studio and independent films, including The Campaign, Afternoon Delight, All the Way, and Bad Boys for Life. Jurgensen began collaborating with director Paul Thomas Anderson on Inherent Vice, culminating in his award-nominated feature editing debut on Licorice Pizza in 2021. Jurgensen has also cut many of the director’s short-form projects, including Junun, Anima, and music videos for artists such as Radiohead, Joanna Newsom, Haim, and The Smile. Jurgensen most recently edited Anderson’s latest feature film, the acclaimed One Battle After Another.

Ben Munro, production designer, F1
Ben Munro began his production design career in 1998, working his way through film art departments in a variety of different roles. Since then, Munro has worked on more than 45 productions, collaborating with leading directors like Joseph Kosinski, David Ayer, Ridley Scott, Tim Burton, and Michael Bay on a wide range of projects, from large-scale blockbusters to independent features, high-end television, and smaller productions. A six-time Art Directors Guild Award nominee, Munro’s film and TV credits include F1, The Beekeeper, Masters of the Air, Napoleon, Dumbo, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation.

Stephanie Pasicov, makeup designer, Roofman, The Testament of Ann Lee
Stephanie Pasicov is an Emmy Award-nominated makeup department head and special FX makeup artist based in New York. Her recent credits include Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee and Derek Cianfrance’s Roofman as well as Paul Feig’s upcoming The Housemaid and Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming The Last Mrs. Parrish. Pasicov has collaborated with Steven Soderbergh on multiple projects, receiving two Emmy nominations for her work on The Knick. An industry innovator, she helped develop a long-term tattoo application in collaboration with an MIT research laboratory. In addition to her on-set work, Pasicov has taught special FX makeup to graduate students at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.

Alex Somers, composer, Rental Family
Alex Somers is an Los Angeles-based composer and music producer. Somers moved to Reykjavík after college, spending 12 years in Iceland honing his skills as a composer, producer, audio engineer, and mixer. After relocating to Los Angeles, Somers has been steeped in creating music for film and TV. His recent projects include Rental Family, Nickel Boys, Overcompensating, Holland, Honey Boy, Captain Fantastic, Taylor Swift: Miss Americana, and Causeway, as well as the Sigur Rós album Valtari and his Riceboy Sleeps collaboration album with lead singer Jónsi.

Malgosia Turzanska, costume designer, Hamnet, Train Dreams
Born and raised in Krakow, Poland, Malgosia Turzanska earned costume design degrees in Prague and New York before beginning her film and TV career. She has received two Costume Designers Guild Award nominations for her work on Stranger Things and The Green Knight. Her other credits include X, Pearl, The First, Hell or High Water, and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. Her most recent films are Clint Bentley’s Train Dreams and Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. When not designing costumes, Turzanska makes textile sculptures and useless, impractical furniture.

Jennifer Venditti, casting director, Bugonia, Marty Supreme, The Smashing Machine
Jennifer Venditti is an acclaimed casting director and filmmaker recognized for discovering the extraordinary in the ordinary. Beginning in fashion in 1998, she pioneered street casting, challenging traditional beauty standards and championing diversity. Her human-centered approach, blending professional and nonprofessional actors, defines her work across film and television. In 2008, she directed and produced Billy the Kid, which helped launched her celebrated career in casting. Since then, she has shaped critically acclaimed projects with directors like Josh and Benny Safdie, Mike Mills, Andrea Arnold, Nathan Fielder, Park Chan-wook, and Yorgos Lanthimos.

Torsten Witte, hair designer, Bugonia
Torsten Witte began his career as a hair and makeup artist in Germany working in print and commercials until he decided to move into high fashion, honing his craft on the couture runways of Paris, Spain, and New York. His first film credit was as makeup department head on Little Miss Sunshine. Since then, he has worked on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Ruby Sparks, The Front Runner, My Name is Andrea, Pickled Herring, Holland/Michigan, La La Land, Battle of the Sexes, and Bugonia. His upcoming projects include The Rip, where he served as Matt Damon’s makeup artist, and Animals.