Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
Academy museum of motion pictures
May 23, 2025 - October 25, 2026
Curated by Exhibitions Curator Michelle Puetz with the support of Curatorial Assistants Simran Bhalla and Alexandra James Salichs and former Curatorial Assistant Manouchka Labouba.
Installation view, Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer
Photo: TBC
Over their twenty-five-year collaboration, production designer Sarah Greenwood and set decorator Katie Spencer have brought memorable cinematic worlds to life in more than twenty feature films. Together they have earned seven Academy Award nominations for their work on Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Sherlock Holmes (2010), Anna Karenina (2012), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Darkest Hour (2017), and Barbie (2023).
Barbie to Anna Karenina: The Cinematic Worlds of Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer showcases the pair’s uniquely collaborative process, from their initial research and interpretation of a film script to the finished visual environments we see on screen. The exhibition immerses visitors in Greenwood and Spencer’s approach to three distinctly different films: Anna Karenina, Beauty and the Beast, and Barbie.
From a crumbling 19th-century theater in Russia to an enchanted fairy-tale palace and into the pink glow of Barbieland, the galleries trace a path through the team’s creative world-building for each of these films, exploring key aspects of production design along the way. A playful final gallery immerses visitors in a version of Greenwood and Spencer’s studio environment, offering a behind-the-scenes look at their creative process during their time on the film Barbie.
