Oscars 2023; how Catherine Martin became an Oscars favourite by becoming Baz Luhrmann’s intepreter

Australia’s most successful Oscar winner is not who you think - and while all eyes might be focused on Baz Luhrmann’s celebrated biopic Elvis, regular Oscar viewers will no doubt focus their attention on another Australian. Her name is Catherine Martin, a four-time Oscar winner, making her the most successful Australian (so far) in Oscars history.

She also happens to be the wife of Baz Luhrmann and has worked on a number of his feature films, including Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby; two very stylish films known for their exquisite aesthetic and costume design. The two films happened to earn Martin her four Academy Awards, parlaying this into life as a designer outside the frames of a film camera.

This weekend, she has a chance to pick up two more Academy Awards, as Elvis not only has been nominated for Best Actor and Best Film (sadly, no directors nod yet again for Luhrmann), but also Best Production Design and Best Costume Design. The very two categories that Martin has scooped awards for before, and continuously a name that appears in these categories whenever a Baz Luhrmann film gets Oscar nods.

The Australian director has been known for transforming the silver screen into an immersive environment, be it the wider plains of the outback in Australia, or the swinging, hip soirees as seen in The Great Gatsby. It’s as much an appreciation of Luhrmann’s storytelling as it is an appreciation for the work Martin has put into her husband’s work, ever since she first teamed up with him for Strictly Ballroom in 1992 as a set designer.

And with Catherine Martin comes an assurance from heritage brand that her use of their paraphernalia will be done with much class and aplomb. Tiffany wouldn’t allow their jewellery to be used haphazardly as a mere prop in the background of a scene. Much like an artist looking to capture a landscape, Martin’s work as a designer ensures that your eyes are not averted from the cinema or television screen - which after her successes then transitioned into real-life interior design.

Peopleworld takes a look at Catherine Martin, not only ahead of the Academy Awards this weekend, but to celebrate her achievements in the week that was International Women’s Day 2023.

A love of set design from an early age

It would be her first viewing of The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind that first informed Catherine Martin of her passion for set and costume design. Born in Lindfield, New South Wales in 1965, the young Catherine developed a fascination with vintage clothing also thanks to hand-me-downs she would get periodically from her grandmother. If she couldn’t get her hands on anything from her grandmother, she would harangue her parents to take her to the Victoria and Albert Museum to rifle through their costume section.

Speaking to Vogue in 2015, Martin revealed that “the ladies of [her grandmother’s] church would get out sort of dubious vintage clothing of dubious provenance and do a historical fashion parade and I just thought it was the most wonderful thing I’d ever seen. It all starts from loving clothes and loving the glamour and make-believe of what clothes can do for you.”

She was first taught how to use a sewing machine by her mother at the age of six and by the age of 15 had started designing her own patterns and creating her own dresses. Her keen eye for designs that elicit a story just by their aesthetics saw her continue her designing career by joining the Sydney College of the Arts to study visual design, graduating throughout her further education to study design at the hallowed National Institute of Dramatic Art.

Not only did she garner a Diploma in Design at NIDA, but she met what would be her first collaborator for a series of theatrical shows he would put on in Australia. That person would later go on to become her husband - the one and only Baz Luhrmann.

Strictly Ballroom and breeding a generation of Shakespeare fans

The creative partnership between Martins and Luhrmann was first fostered when Luhrmann asked his future wife to help with set designs for a small theatrical production that would lead to the Australian director’s first major triumph - Strictly Ballroom. While also working on large theatrical productions in Australia including a stage adaption of Nikolai Gogol’s story ‘Diary of a Madman’, starring Geoffrey Rush, and two further Luhrmann productions with La bohème (1990) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

It would be a silver screen return for Strictly Ballroom that saw Martin earn her first industry awards, the Australian Film Institute Awards for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design, and already the distinctly antipodean look and feel of the production became as eye-catching as the dancing itself. However it would be her next work that would draw even further acclaim, and to this day is still a stylistic influence for many young filmmakers and film fans.

It was Romeo + Juliet in 1996 which earned Martin her first Oscar nod for production design, but more importantly than an award itself, the film starring a young Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes was viewed as one of the most stunning, striking series of designs that played with elements of the fashion world as much as making use of the sun-scorched settings the lives of the star crossed lovers resided in.

Martin made sure that the costume design ultimately would not give an impression of a date film, with lots of Dolce & Gabbana and loud, obnoxious shirts that were the fashion item du jour at the time. The choice of fashion houses also had a subliminal reference to the differences between the Montagues and the Capulets; while one wore exclusively Prada and the other D&G, it added a further dimension that despite how the families are dressed, their choice in designers is another point of contention the families would have with each other.

Bringing 1800’s France to the MTV Generation

Moulin Rouge became a cinematic phenomenon upon its release in 2001. This felt like Luhrmann’s apex of visual cinematic flair. Indeed, during an interview with Vogue, Martin described her husband as a “visual director” - thankfully, those ideas for the most part have been captured by Martin in their previous two collaborations.

But Moulin Rouge was a bigger task than Romeo+Juliet - if the plan was for that film to not look dated whenever it screened, Moulin Rouge’s task was to present a version of 1900’s Paris that not only included the hedonism that the film’s characters involve themselves in, but also the rough, downtrodden areas of the French capital to boot. It was viewed by many as Luhrmann and Martin’s bringing “1800s French can-can into the MTV era.” It was a smash hit - eliciting many Halloween and fancy dress costumes in the year that followed.

The set and costume designs were once again lauded, and Martin finally scooped a long-awaited Oscar at the 74th Academy Awards, sharing Best Costume Design with Angus Strathie and Best Production Design with previous collaborator Brigitte Broch. Romeo+Juliet would also be the first of several collaborations with Miuccia Prada, both on set and in commercial ventures.

The Great Gatsby and commercial opportunities

We thought that Moulin Rouge and Australia would be the pinnacle of Martin’s set design, but her work on Luhrmann’s 2013 film The Great Gatsby. It not only earned Martin her third and fourth Oscars but became a cultural phenomenon. Ask yourself - in 2013, how many people did you know hold (or attempted to) an F. Scott Fitzgerald style soiree much akin to both the book and more so the film?

From the meme-able moments featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, working with the team for the first time since Romeo+Juliet turned him into a teenage heartthrob, to the costumes adorned by co-stars Michelle Williams and Toby Maguire, The Great Gatsby was considered peak Luhrmann/Martin in terms of visual flair. It was through this film also that commercial opportunities arose for Martin, which she continues to this day through her website.

She was also recruited alongside Baz Luhrmann to help redesign the aesthetic of the Saxony Suite in the Faena District of Miami in 2013, with both her knack for interior and costume design influencing the look of the rooms and the staff members.

Elvis and potential 5th and 6th Oscar win

This leads us to this year’s Academy Awards, taking place Monday morning GMT and to be screened exclusively on Sky Showcase from midnight. Though the event might mark a historic occasion for another Australian, Cate Blancett, who looks to join the ranks of Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson as three-time acting award winners, history could also be made by Catherine Martin - as she is once again up for two design awards for her work in the much-heralded biopic, Elvis.

She currently is the most celebrated Oscar winner in Australian film history and should she pick up her two wins this year, will see her extend her Academy Awards haul to six - with plenty of time to rival the record set for most Costume Design wins in Oscars history, currently held by renowned designer Edith Head.

Luhrmann has on more than one occasion said that Catherine acts as his ‘visual interpreter,’ taking his fantastical ideas and turning them into reality time and time again. When asked by IndieWire about the continued success of his wife, Luhrmann simply replied “I don’t know how she does it. I’m not joking. My mind wanders, it’s very hard to focus.”