
Jeannine Oppewall
Art
Biography
Jeannine Oppewall entered the film industry in the late 1970s after a six-year association with the great design innovators, Charles and Ray Eames. She worked as a set designer (Blue Collar, Blow Out, The Rose, Honky Tonk Freeway) before rising to the position of production designer in 1983 with Tender Mercies, the modestly budgeted ‘slice of life’ film, which brought Robert Duvall an Academy Award. For the next several years, Ms Oppewall designed an impressive variety of motion pictures for a diverse list of directors, many with international credentials. These range from the Russian Andrei Konchalovsky (Maria’s Lovers) and the Brazilian Hector Babenco (Ironweed), to include Costa-Gavras (The Music Box) and Luis Mandoki (White Palace). Other credits include Love Letters, The Big Easy, Rooftops, Wonder Boys and Sibling Rivalry. Other films for which she is known are Seabiscuit (starring Jeff Bridges), Catch Me if You Can (Directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio), The Sum of All Fears (starring Morgan Freeman), and Robert DeNiro’s The Good Shepherd, released at the end of 2006. Claudia has received 4 Oscar Award nominations for her films and received the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Production Design, 1998 for Pleasantville. She also won the Art Directors’ Guild’s award for Excellence in Production Design for Catch Me If You Can, and was nominated for 5 others of her films for the same. She served on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for 9 years and is currently the co-chairperson of its Museum Committee.
Known For

A well-to-do husband who allows his wife to have affairs in order to avoid a divorce becomes a prime suspect in the disappearance of her lovers.
Deep Water

A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor. An FBI agent makes it his mission to put him behind bars. But Frank not only eludes capture, he revels in the pursuit.
Catch Me If You Can

Defense attorney Martin Vail takes on jobs for money and prestige rather than any sense of the greater good. His latest case involves an altar boy, accused of brutally murdering the archbishop of Chicago. Vail finds himself up against his ex-pupil and ex-lover, but as the case progresses and the Church's dark secrets are revealed, Vail finds that what appeared a simple case takes on a darker, more dangerous aspect.
Primal Fear

Three detectives in the corrupt and brutal L.A. police force of the 1950s use differing methods to uncover a conspiracy behind the shotgun slayings of the patrons at an all-night diner.
L.A. Confidential

When David Greene receives a football scholarship to a prestigious prep school in the 1950s, he feels pressure to hide the fact that he is Jewish from his classmates and teachers, fearing that they may be anti-Semitic. He quickly becomes the big man on campus thanks to his football skills, but when his Jewish background is discovered, his worst fears are realized and his friends turn on him with violent threats and public ridicule.
School Ties

When a deadly airborne virus threatens to wipe out the northeastern United States, teacher Elliot Moore and his wife Alma flee from contaminated cities into the countryside in a fight to discover the truth. Is it terrorism, the accidental release of some toxic military bio weapon -- or something even more sinister?
The Happening

When the president of Russia suddenly dies, a man whose politics are virtually unknown succeeds him. The change in political leaders sparks paranoia among American CIA officials, so CIA director Bill Cabot recruits a young analyst to supply insight and advice on the situation. Then the unthinkable happens: a nuclear bomb explodes in a U.S. city, and America is quick to blame the Russians.
The Sum of All Fears

Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson for four days in the 1960s.
The Bridges of Madison County

After years of separation, Irena Gallier and her minister brother, Paul, reunite in New Orleans. When zoologists capture a wild panther, Irena is drawn to the cat – and zoo curator Oliver to her. Soon, Paul will have to reveal the family secret: that when sexually aroused, they revert into predatory jungle cats.
Cat People

While recording sound effects for a slasher flick, Jack Terry stumbles upon a real-life horror: a car careening off a bridge and into a river. Jack jumps into the water and fishes out Sally from the car, but the other passenger is already dead — a governor intending to run for president. As Jack does some investigating of his tapes, and starts a perilous romance with Sally, he enters a tangled web of conspiracy that might leave him dead.
Blow Out

Edward Wilson, the only witness to his father's suicide and member of the Skull and Bones Society while a student at Yale, is a morally upright young man who values honor and discretion, qualities that help him to be recruited for a career in the newly founded OSS. His dedication to his work does not come without a price though, leading him to sacrifice his ideals and eventually his family.
The Good Shepherd

Geeky teenager David and his popular twin sister, Jennifer, get sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV sitcom called "Pleasantville," and find a world where everything is peachy keen all the time. But when Jennifer's modern attitude disrupts Pleasantville's peaceful but boring routine, she literally brings color into its life.
Pleasantville

True story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation.
Seabiscuit

A World War II prisoner returns home to his childhood sweetheart. However, back home, he discovers that he has to compete to win her love.
Maria's Lovers

Max Baron is a Jewish advertising executive in his 20s who's still getting over the death of his wife. Nora Baker is a 40-something diner waitress who enjoys the wilder side of life. Mismatched or not, their attraction is instant and smoldering. With time, however, their class and age differences become an obstacle in their relationship, especially since Max can't keep Nora a secret from his Jewish friends and upper-crust associates forever.
White Palace

Grady is a 50-ish English professor who hasn't had a thing published in years—not since he wrote his award winning 'Great American Novel' 7 years ago. This weekend proves even worse than he could imagine as he finds himself reeling from one misadventure to another in the company of a new wonder boy author.
Wonder Boys

The boyfriend of an abducted woman never gives up the search as the abductor looks on.
The Vanishing

A minor train accident in rural Nebraska gradually unveils a mystery involving the town's reclusive bank clerk.
Peacock

An alcoholic drifter spends Halloween in his hometown of Albany, New York after returning there for the first time in decades.
Ironweed

The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement.