‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘Marty Supreme’ Take Film Honors at 2026 Location Managers Guild Awards

The 2026 Location Managers Guild Awards recognized One Battle After Another and Marty Supreme as the year’s feature-film winners during the guild’s 13th annual ceremony in Santa Monica on August 22. Television honors went to Pluribus, Fallout and Black Rabbit, while Vince Gilligan and veteran location manager Mike Fantasia were among the recipients of special career and industry awards.

The results were formally announced by the Location Managers Guild International following the ceremony. In its official 2026 winners announcement, the organization highlighted the productions and professionals whose location work helped establish the visual worlds of films, television series and commercials across multiple countries and regions.

2026 Location Managers Guild Awards split the feature-film prizes

One Battle After Another won Outstanding Locations in a Contemporary Feature Film. The production filmed across several California locations, including Humboldt County, Sacramento, Stockton, Eureka, Arcata and San Diego, as well as El Paso, Texas.

Marty Supreme received the period-feature honor. Its location work stretched across New York City and the greater New York area, the Hudson Valley, New Jersey and Tokyo, giving its location team the additional challenge of finding and transforming modern environments for a period story.

The film winners had emerged from a larger field of nominees announced earlier in the summer. The guild’s official nominations announcement said the 2026 awards drew a record number of submissions from around the world, reflecting the increasingly international nature of production location work.

The awards themselves were scheduled for August 22 at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica, a date also listed on the Location Managers Guild International calendar.

Pluribus, Fallout and Black Rabbit lead the television winners

The television results covered three different production formats. Pluribus won Outstanding Locations in a Contemporary Television Series after filming in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as Montana, Nevada and Spain.

Fallout Season 2 earned the period television award. The winning production used locations including California’s Dumont Dunes, Mojave Desert, Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita.

Netflix’s Black Rabbit won Outstanding Locations in a TV Anthology, Movie or Limited Series, with filming centered around New York City, including Brooklyn and Manhattan.

TheWrap’s post-ceremony winners report independently confirmed the feature and television results and identified the individual location professionals recognized in each category.

The awards spotlight a craft audiences rarely see

The LMGI Awards differ from many better-known Hollywood ceremonies because they focus specifically on the work required to find, secure and manage the real-world environments in which productions film.

A location can influence a project in ways that extend far beyond scenery. Location teams have to identify spaces that serve a director’s visual goals while also solving practical questions involving access, transportation, neighborhood coordination, permits, crew movement and the physical demands of production.

Those challenges become particularly pronounced with period projects. A contemporary city can contain the right building or street architecture for a story set decades earlier, but the location department must still help production teams account for modern signs, vehicles, infrastructure and other details that can break the illusion.

The guild’s official 2026 awards program devoted separate categories to contemporary and period film and television work, reflecting the different creative and logistical demands involved.

Vince Gilligan and Mike Fantasia receive special honors

The evening also recognized several people and organizations beyond the competitive categories. Vince Gilligan received the Eva Monley Award, while Fantasia received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Fantasia’s career spans more than three decades of location work on major films. The guild had announced his honor in May, citing credits that include Top Gun: Maverick, Killers of the Flower Moon, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Heat, Jerry Maguire and Catch Me If You Can.

The Environmental Media Association received the Humanitarian Award, and the Association of Film Commissioners International was recognized with the Trailblazer Award.

BroadwayWorld’s coverage of the winners independently corroborated the two feature-film prizes, the three television winners and the special honors presented during the ceremony.

Why the LMGI results matter beyond awards season

The winners offer a reminder that some of the most important visual decisions in movies and television happen before cameras begin rolling. Choosing an existing city block, desert, neighborhood, theater, storefront or landscape can shape the tone of a production as decisively as a constructed set.

That makes the 2026 results more than another list of awards-season winners. The guild’s categories identify the teams responsible for connecting fictional worlds to actual places, whether that means transforming New York and Tokyo for Marty Supreme, navigating California and Texas for One Battle After Another, or building the television environments of Pluribus, Fallout and Black Rabbit.

For the projects honored in Santa Monica, the awards recognize a part of filmmaking that is deliberately designed not to call attention to itself. When location work succeeds, audiences see the world of the story rather than the planning required to make that world possible.