Movies made beyond soundstages dominate Oscar best picture nominations

When it comes to this year's Academy Award nominees for best picture, soundstage real estate took a backstage to real-world shooting locations as varied as desert highways, ancient castles and logging camps.

Most of this year’s 10 contenders, particularly "One Battle After Another," "Sinners," "Sentimental Value," "Bugonia," "Marty Supreme," "F1," "Train Dreams" and "The Secret Agent," captured the bulk of the acting in environments that spoke to movie settings, including California redwood forests and Louisiana bayous, Formula 1 racing circuits and Brazilian civic landmarks.

The approach reflects a broader push for realism and atmosphere in prestige films that premiered last year and will be recognized in the awards program Sunday, with filmmakers increasingly grounding stories in physical places rather than purpose‑built stage property. In several cases, productions went all in on location shooting, with a focus on leasing space for trailers and equipment.

"F1" embedded cameras directly into live auto racing events around the world. "Marty Supreme" recreated mid‑20th century New York by transforming streets and buildings in the city. "The Secret Agent" relied entirely on real Brazilian architecture to evoke the political climate of the 1970s. "Train Dreams" built structures in remote landscapes.

That shift doesn't mean studios — and their sometimes large industrial properties — have become obsolete, according to Nicole Mihalka, a senior vice president at CBRE who handles leasing at some of the top soundstage complexes in Los Angeles.

Instead, soundstages have taken on a supporting role, with production crews using studio facilities to complement real settings with interiors or environments that would be impractical to capture on site.

"Hamnet," for example, combined English countryside filming with handcrafted Elizabethan interiors built at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, while Guillermo del Toro’s "Frankenstein" paired sweeping exteriors in Scotland and the Canadian Rockies with elaborate Gothic sets constructed at Toronto’s Cinespace soundstages.

As productions venture out of studios and into cities, deserts and remote landscapes, another form of real estate becomes essential: base camps. These temporary hubs house production vehicles, equipment trucks, cast trailers and crew staging areas.

They allow filming to take place nearby without overwhelming the immediate location.

“Base camp is basically where your vehicles are, your star wagons, and where everybody consolidates before they go to shoot,” Mihalka said.

In dense markets like Los Angeles, where land is scarce and studio lots are rare, base camps often spill into nearby parking lots, garages or vacant parcels. For neighborhood shoots, productions may lease off‑site lots just blocks away to keep streets functional while filming continues.

“That’s typically what you’re going to get for an on‑location shoot,” Mihalka said. “You do what you have to do.”

Even as filmmakers chase authenticity outdoors, studio campuses still matter for their ability to consolidate operations and control costs. Productions that blend location shooting with nearby stages can reduce transportation, power and logistics expenses.

That is especially true at newer soundstage facilities designed to support both filming and support functions.

“There’s an interest in doing everything in one environment as much as possible,” Mihalka said. “It’s just about being able to integrate stages, offices and location access in a way that makes financial sense."

Beyond filming locations and soundstages, production companies shape the real estate used in these films while leasing office space. Even location‑heavy productions typically lease offices on or near studio campuses to house production teams and executives, often for months at a time, Mihalka said.

For distributors and larger production firms, those offices anchor decision‑making, talent coordination and marketing operations, even when the cameras are rolling far from home. Here's a look at the real estate used among the movies nominated in the best picture category this year.

Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s "One Battle After Another" is among several Oscar‑nominated films that bypassed traditional soundstage production altogether. The Warner Bros. release was shot entirely in real‑world locations, relying on forests, deserts and city streets across California and Texas rather than studio infrastructure. That pushed spending toward land access, permits and logistics instead of purpose‑built sets.

Key filming locations: The film was shot in Humboldt County, California, using a redwood cabin in Kneeland, Eureka High School, Sequoia Park and a pedestrian bridge in Arcata; in Sacramento, California, at the Sacramento County Courthouse, a downtown bank on J Street and the historic Reagan Mansion; in El Paso, Texas, at the Genesis Perfumeria and surrounding downtown streets; in Lompoc, California, at the La Purisima Mission; in San Diego, at the Westgate Hotel and the Otay Mesa border crossing; and in the Anza-Borrego Desert near Borrego Springs, including the Texas Dip and Ocotillo Wells, for the climactic car chase.

Production company: Ghoulardi Film Co. (Los Angeles)

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures (Burbank, California)

Ryan Coogler’s "Sinners" leans on Louisiana towns and plantations to recreate the Mississippi Delta of the 1930s. Production selectively turned to soundstages to construct interiors.

Key filming locations: The film was shot in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, along Railroad Avenue in the historic Railroad District, transformed into 1930s Clarksdale, Mississippi; in St. Bernard Parish, at Creedmoor Plantation; in Braithwaite, at the Hidden Oaks Golf Course; in Thibodaux, at Laurel Valley Plantation for cotton fields and a custom-built church; and in Bogalusa, at the historic train depot.

Soundstage use: Second Line Stages for interior sets including the juke joint (New Orleans)

Production companies: Proximity Media (Beverly Hills, California); Domain Entertainment (Atlanta)

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures (Burbank, California)

Chloé Zhao’s "Hamnet" films in historic English landscapes as well as traditional studios. The film relied on real Tudor‑era villages and countryside to ground its sense of place, while turning to Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom, for complex interior scenes and large‑scale period set construction that would have been impractical on location alone.

Key filming locations: The film was shot in Herefordshire, England, transforming the Tudor village of Weobley and the National Trust’s Cwmmau Farmhouse to portray Shakespeare’s Stratford and Hathaway family home; in Gloucestershire, England, using the Lydney Park Estate in the Forest of Dean for its ancient woodlands; and in London, at the medieval Charterhouse in Clerkenwell and a Thames riverside wharf near Greenwich.

Soundstage use: Elstree Studios for Elizabethan interiors and major set pieces (Hertfordshire, United Kingdom)

Production companies: Hera Pictures (London); Neal Street Productions (London); Amblin Entertainment (Universal City, California)

Distributor: Focus Features (Universal City, California)

Guillermo del Toro’s "Frankenstein" balances sweeping natural backdrops with heavily stylized studio environments. While exterior sequences were filmed in Scotland and the Canadian Rockies, the film relied on Toronto soundstages to construct its Gothic interiors.

Key filming locations: The film was shot across Canada and the United Kingdom. In Toronto, production built an icebound ship set in the Port Lands and a towering laboratory exterior at the Markham Fairgrounds, with forest and winter scenes filmed at Rockwood Park and Lake Nipissing, as well as a farm in rural Ontario. In Scotland, filming took place at Gosford House in East Lothian, Dunecht House in Aberdeenshire, multiple sites in Edinburgh’s Old Town and the Signet Library for city scenes, Glasgow Cathedral’s crypt, and Seacliff Beach. Additional scenes were shot in England at Wilton House in Wiltshire and Burghley House in Lincolnshire.

Soundstage use: Cinespace Film Studios, for laboratories and manor interiors (Toronto)

Production companies: Double Dare You (Los Angeles); Demīlo Films (Los Angeles); Bluegrass Films (Universal City, California)

Distributor: Netflix (Los Gatos, California)

Joachim Trier’s "Sentimental Value" is rooted in everyday urban and coastal environments, with Oslo and Sweden’s west coast providing the film’s geography. Soundstage use was kept to a minimum, employed only for a brief film‑within‑a‑film sequence.

Key filming locations: The film was shot in Oslo, Norway, using a historic villa on Thomas Heftyes gate, the National Theatre, a cemetery at Vår Frelsers gravlund, an apartment building on Westye Egebergs gate, and Gimle Terrasse; in Strömstad, Sweden, for its parks and coastal streetscapes; and in Deauville, France, around the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès for the film festival scenes.

Soundstage use: Gateway Studios (Drammen, Norway)

Production companies: Mer Film (Tromsø, Norway); Komplizen Film (Berlin, Germany); Zentropa (Copenhagen); BBC Film (London)

Distributor: Neon (New York City)

Yorgos Lanthimos’ "Bugonia" eschewed traditional studio infrastructure entirely, opting instead to build its primary sets directly on real land. The production constructed a full‑scale American‑style house on a rural U.K. site.

Key filming locations: The film was shot in Georgia, briefly using Atlanta’s Blue Star Studios for a scene with special effects and on location in small communities like Griffin, East Point and Ellenwood; in England at a private estate on Birds Hill Road in Oxshott, Surrey, the Culden Faw Estate near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, the Botanica Ditton Park campus near Slough in Berkshire, and around historic High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire; and on Milos Island, Greece, at the stark white Sarakiniko Beach, for the film’s climactic scenes.

Soundstage use: Blue Star Studios (Forest Park, Georgia)

Production companies: Element Pictures (Dublin); Square Peg (Los Angeles); CJ ENM (Seoul); Pilar Films (Lisbon)

Distributor: Searchlight Pictures (Los Angeles)

Joseph Kosinski’s "F1" pushed location filming to an extreme, embedding production directly into live Formula One race weekends around the world. With no soundstage use, the film relied entirely on operational racetracks, transforming global sports infrastructure into high‑value production real estate.

Key filming locations: The film was shot at Formula One circuits worldwide including Silverstone in the United Kingdom, Hungaroring in Hungary, Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, Monza in Italy, Zandvoort in the Netherlands, Suzuka in Japan, Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, the Las Vegas Strip circuit, Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi, Circuit of The Americas in Texas and Daytona International Speedway in Florida; plus off-track locations like the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, England, and Brands Hatch in Kent, United Kingdom.

Production companies: Apple Studios (Culver City, California); Jerry Bruckheimer Films (Santa Monica, California); Plan B Entertainment (Studio City, California)

Distributors: Warner Bros. Pictures for theatrical release (Burbank, California); Apple Original Films for streaming release (Culver City, California)

Josh Safdie’s "Marty Supreme" rebuilt lost locations inside existing structures and used international cityscapes to stand in for multiple eras, turning adaptive reuse into a core production strategy.

Key filming locations: The film was shot in New York City, using real Manhattan locales including the Lower East Side’s Orchard Street/Seward Park area and Central Park transformed into 1950s settings; across New York state at the Rye Playland boardwalk, in the towns of Hancock and Florida, and on a rural set built in Warwick; in New Jersey at a farmhouse in Chesterfield Township, the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, historic streets in Paterson, a Hopewell post office, and the vintage Ritz Theatre in Elizabeth; and in Tokyo, where city streets and custom-built sets were used for the film’s climactic scenes.

Production Companies: A24 (New York City); IPR.VC (Helsinki, Finland)

Distributor: A24 (New York City)

Kleber Mendonça Filho’s "The Secret Agent" was shot entirely on location in Brazil, using real civic buildings and public spaces to recreate the atmosphere of the 1970s military dictatorship.

Key filming locations: Shooting took place in Recife, Brazil, at historic sites like the Cinema São Luiz on Rua da Aurora and the Ginásio Pernambucano school, as well as across central Recife’s streets, bridges such as Ponte Duarte Coelho, and public spaces like Parque 13 de Maio, Capibaribe River, Porto do Recife, Praça do Sebo and surrounding arcades; with additional scenes filmed in São Paulo’s urban environment and in Brasília, notably outside the modernist Edifício Morro Vermelho with its iconic “orelhão” artistic phone booth.

Production companies: CinemaScópio (Recife, Brazil); One Two Films (Berlin); Lemming Film (Amsterdam); Arte France Cinéma (Paris)

Distributors: Vitrine Filmes (São Paulo); Port au Prince Films (Berlin); Ad Vitam (Aubervilliers, France)

Clint Bentley’s "Train Dreams" relied almost entirely on remote natural locations, with production design integrated directly into the landscape. Hand‑built structures were constructed and destroyed on site, while only minimal controlled environments were used for technical sequences.

Key filming locations: The film was shot entirely in Washington state in Snoqualmie and North Bend amid the Cascade forests around Snoqualmie Falls and Rattlesnake Lake, around Spokane at sites like a 19th-century mission chapel and the historic Davenport Hotel, and in rural towns including at a family-run logging camp in Colville, Metaline Falls, Chewelah and the Empire Theater in Tekoa.

Soundstage use: NXNW Productions (Spokane, Washington) was used briefly for controlled special-effects shots.

Production companies: Black Bear Pictures (Los Angeles); Kamala Films (New York City)

Distributor: Netflix (Los Gatos, California)