'Dune' Production Designer Patrice Vermette to Be Honored at SCAD Savannah Film Festival
Academy Award-winning production designer to receive Variety Creative Impact in Production Design Award at SCAD Savannah Film Festival
SAVANNAH, GEORGIA (Sept. 22, 2026) — The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is proud to announce that Academy Award-winning production designer Patrice Vermette will be honored with the Variety Creative Impact in Production Design Award at the 2026 SCAD Savannah Film Festival, presented in partnership with Variety.
As director Denis Villeneuve's go-to production designer, Vermette has worked on Villenueve's films Sicario, Arrival, and all three Dune installments. Nominated for four Academy Awards, Vermette won for his work on Dune: Part One in 2022.
"SCAD is thrilled to recognize Patrice Vermette with the Variety Creative Impact Award," said Christina Routhier, senior executive director of the SCAD Savannah Film Festival. "Patrice is a true visionary whose architectural brilliance and breathtaking scope have redefined modern world-building in cinema. For our SCAD students, learning firsthand from an Oscar-winning icon whose work creates living, breathing environments will be an unforgettable experience."
Vermette will receive the award during the SCAD Savannah Film Festival, which will run Oct. 24–Oct. 31. Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is the largest university-run film festival in the world and one of the largest of any kind in the Southeast. Each year, more than 74,000 people attend the eight-day festival, which has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive screenings, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD's historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces.
Across Savannah and Atlanta, SCAD production design students prepare for careers in film, television, live theater, and themed entertainment. Students and alumni have access to professional soundstages, Broadway-style theaters, LED volume technology, fabrication facilities, and SCAD's 11-acre Hollywood-style backlot with more than 50 facades and practical interiors. Mentored by acclaimed working designers and creative leaders, alumni have gone on to careers with 20th Century Studios, HBO, NBCUniversal, Walt Disney Imagineering, and other leading entertainment companies.
ABOUT THE SCAD SAVANNAH FILM FESTIVAL
Presented by the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), the SCAD Savannah Film Festival is filled with cinematic creativity from award-winning professionals and emerging student filmmakers. Each year, more than 74,000 people attend the eight-day festival. The festival has become a distinguished stop on the road to the Academy Awards, hosting exclusive screenings, competition films, feature films, documentaries, shorts, animated films, panel discussions, and workshops at SCAD's historic theaters and industry-leading studio spaces. Presented in Savannah, a premier film hub in the Southeast, the festival promotes quality movies produced by independent and studio filmmakers.
Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, Letterboxd, and TikTok @savfilmfest. For additional information and tickets, visit filmfest.scad.edu.
SCAD: THE UNIVERSITY FOR CREATIVE CAREERS
SCAD is a private, nonprofit, accredited university, offering more than 100 graduate and undergraduate degree programs across locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia; Lacoste, France; and online via SCADnow. SCAD enrolls more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students from more than 100 countries. The future-minded SCAD curriculum engages professional-level technology and myriad advanced learning resources, affording students opportunities for internships, professional certifications, and real-world assignments with corporate partners through SCADpro, the university's renowned research lab and prototype generator. SCAD has earned top rankings for degree programs in interior design, architecture, film, fashion, digital media, and more. Career success is woven into every fiber of the university, resulting in a superior alumni employment rate. A 2026 study found that 99% of recent SCAD graduates were employed, pursuing further education, or both within 12 months of graduation. SCAD provides students and alumni with ongoing career support through personal coaching, alumni programs, a professional presentation studio, and more.
ABOUT THE SCAD SCHOOL OF FILM AND ACTING
With resources that rival Hollywood studios and Broadway theaters, award-winning faculty, professionally run casting offices, and renowned film and television festivals, the SCAD School of Film and Acting prepares students for impactful careers in film, television, and live performance. Students in acting, cinematography, editing, film and television, production design, sound design, and the school's new music production and vocal performance degree programs work across disciplines on professional-caliber film and TV shoots and stage performances, gaining hands-on experience, production credits, and valuable industry connections before graduation.
The heart of the SCAD School of Film and Acting is the newly completed 11-acre SCAD Film Studios in Savannah, the largest and most comprehensive university film studio complex in higher education. Designed for professional and student productions, the complex includes purpose-built soundstages and an expansive Hollywood-style backlot with more than 50 façades and practical interiors that can be transformed for different locations and eras. Filmmakers in Savannah also have access to a leading-edge LED volume stage, as well as virtual production, postproduction, and extensive production and costume design facilities. Together with SCAD Film Studios in Atlanta — with its own state-of-the-art spaces, such as an LED volume stage, broadcast studios, and editing facilities — located amid one of the nation's leading film and television production markets, these resources position students on the same sets and spaces they will lead throughout their careers. At SCAD, every set, stage, and studio is a classroom.
Each fall, the SCAD Savannah Film Festival welcomes celebrated filmmakers, actors, producers, and other industry leaders to Savannah, bringing national and international attention to filmmaking throughout the region and Georgia. During the festival's weeklong lineup of screenings and panels, SCAD students enjoy myriad opportunities to connect with major stars in front of and behind the camera, including exclusive master classes and Q&A sessions.
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