The winners of the 2026 Australian Production Design Guild (APDG) Awards have been announced. The awards recognise the outstanding achievement of Australia’s designers across live performance, events, film and television.

William Barton and dancers of Sydney Dance Company in Stephen Page’s Unungkati Yantatja – one with the other. Photo © Daniel Boud

Veteran costume designer Jennifer Irwin won The Jennie Tate Costume Design for a Live Performance or Event Award for her work on Sydney Dance Company’s Unungkati Yantatja – One with the Other.

Lighting designer Paul Jackson has taken home the Vectorworks Australia Lighting Design for a Live Performance Award for his work on Malthouse Theatre’s Troy. This is Jackson’s sixth APDG Award.

Malthouse Theatre’s Troy. Photo supplied

Video designer Susie Henderson earned the award for Video and Visual Technology Design for a Live Performance or Event Award for her work on Legs on the Wall’s Endling, which premiered at Vivid Sydney in 2025.

The Multi-Discipline Design for a Live Performance or Event Award has been given to the team behind Chasing the Sun, an exhibition presented at the Australian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka.  Headed by creative lead and multi-disciplinary designer Eamon D’Arcy, Chasing the Sun‘s design team also includes Tony Papp, Mick Jessop and Amber Stapff.

The Wrong Gods: Nadie Kammallaweera and Manali Datar. Photo © Brett Boardman

Set designer Keerthi Subramanyam earned the Event Engineering Set Design for a Live Performance or Event Award for her work on The Wrong Gods, presented by Belvoir St Theatre.

The NIDA Foundation Emerging Designer For A Live Performance or Event Award was presented to NIDA’s production of Peter Pan – production designer Ella Wilkinson, lighting designer Thomas Shepherd and video designer Taylah Crouch.

In screen production, art director Callum Webster and production designer Don Macaulay took home the Best Art Direction for a Feature Film or Television Production Award for their work on the second season of The Last of Us.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North earned two awards – one for graphic designers Anna McEwan and Michael Wholley, and one for its set decorator team headed by Beverley Dunn.

The Artful Dodger production designer Nicholas Dare also took home a gong, while other winners include concept artist Daniel J Burns (Star Trek Strange New Worlds), costume designer Gypsy Taylor (All Her Fault) and multi-disciplinary designer Nathan Andrew Evans (Collect Call).

Costume and production designer Aphrodite Kondos was awarded Cameron’s Management Outstanding Contribution to Design Award, while milliner Phillip Rhodes was awarded the Event Engineering Artisan Lifetime Achievement Award.

The full list of recipients of the 2026 Australian Production Design Guild Awards can be found here.