Gallery Spotlight: Costume Design with Natalie O’Brien

Join us in conversation with costume designer Natalie O'Brien as we discuss the importance of horror storytelling through costume design.

The Education and Public Engagement team invites visitors to explore Stories of Cinema, the Academy Museum’s ongoing core exhibition that presents diverse, international, and complex stories of moviemakers and the works they create.   

When you think of horror films, what comes to mind? Is it chilling music, suspenseful storytelling, or the iconic costumes?

Join us in conversation with costume designer Natalie O'Brien as we discuss the importance of horror storytelling through costume design. The conversation will discuss her inspirations and revisit O’Brien’s The Girl from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) currently on view in the Identity gallery that features costume, make-up, and hairstyling.

About Natalie O’Brien
Based in Los Angeles, Natalie O'Brien is a costume designer who is passionate about crafting unique characters and narrating their tales across studio, independent, and commercial platforms.

Natalie has meticulously designed a diverse array of costumes: from creating 14th-century nun habits for an Italian convent in Jeff Baena's The Little Hours (2017) to adorning Chloë Sevigny and Kristen Stewart in 19th-century fashion for Craig Macneill's Lizzie (2018), to immersing audiences in a 1970s New Hollywood–inspired universe in Julia Hart's lauded I’m Your Woman (2020), featuring Rachel Brosnahan.

O’Brien found inspiration in her Iranian heritage for her breakthrough film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) directed by Ana Lily Amirpour. This black- and- white Farsi vampire film not only garnered multiple Independent Spirit and Gotham Award nominations, but also sparked the creation of striking Halloween costumes for years. One of the iconic original costumes from the film has found a cherished place at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.

O’Brien has frequently collaborated with Amirpour, including the films The Bad Batch—whose premiere secured a special prize at the 2015 Venice International Film Festival—and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, which debuted at the same festival in 2021. O’Brien's works include involvement in designing Disney’s Stargirl franchise; Alma Har’el's Honey Boy, which earned a Special Jury Prize at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival;, and Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West, which won Best First Feature at the 2018 Independent Spirit Awards. Her latest projects include two thrillers: the new release No One Will Save You, starring Kaitlyn Dever; and "Five Nights at Freddy's, produced by Blumhouse and scheduled for a release in late October.

The conversation will take place in the Netflix Lounge on Level 2. We encourage visitors to explore the Identity gallery located on Level 2, before or after the conversation.

 If you have any questions, or need assistance planning your visit, please email museumeducation@oscars.org. 

Free with general museum admission, the Gallery Spotlight Series is a monthly conversation with featured guests.

Back to Main Series

More in Series

Education Program

Fri, Nov 22, 2024

Gallery Spotlight: Effects in Film

The Gallery Spotlight Series is a monthly conversation with featured guests and is complimentary with general museum admission.

Education Program

Fri, Jan 31, 2025

Gallery Spotlight: Animating Worlds and Characters with Peter Sohn

Complimentary with general museum admission, the Gallery Spotlight Series is a monthly conversation with featured guests.

Education Program

Fri, Feb 14, 2025

Gallery Spotlight: Inside the Editing Room with Joi McMillon

Complimentary with general museum admission, the Gallery Spotlight Series is a monthly conversation with featured guests.

Education Program

Hayao Miyazaki Exhibition Conversation

Academy Museum curators Jessica Niebel and J. Raúl Guzmán with special guest scholar Susan Napier of Tufts University in conversation on visionary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.

Public Program

Gallery Conversation: Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple Black was one of the most successful child actors of her time. Temple earned a special Academy Award for her contributions to screen entertainment in 1934.

Director's Inspiration: Spike Lee Gallery in STORIES OF CINEMA

Education Program

Sunday, September 25, 2022

Gallery Spotlight – Director’s Inspiration: Spike Lee

Pop-up poetry performances by Roger Guenveur Smith in the Director’s Inspiration: Spike Lee gallery.

Academy Awards History gallery, Stories of Cinema 2, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo by Joshua White, JWPictures/©Academy Museum Foundation

Public Program

Saturday, November 5, 2022

Gallery Conversation: The Academy and the Award with Bruce Davis and Randy Haberkamp

Bruce Davis and Randy Haberkamp discuss Davis’s new book, The Academy and the Award.

Education Program

Friday, December 16, 2022

Exhibition Conversation: The Godfather and the Mandolin with Ben Brussell

Musician Ben Brussell explores the musical storytelling of The Godfather.

Education Program

Friday, January 6, 2023

Gallery Conversation: Significant Movies and Moviemakers with Dara Jaffe

Public Program

Friday, February 24, 2023

Gallery Spotlight: Academy Awards History with Doris Berger and Randy Haberkamp

Gallery Image of Inventing Worlds and Characters: Animation

Public Program

Friday, March 24, 2023

Gallery Spotlight: Inventing Worlds and Characters: Animation with Jenny He

Learn more about the gallery Inventing Worlds and Characters: Animation from Exhibitions Curator Jenny He.

Costume Design Gallery in Stories of Cinema 3

Public Program

April 28, 2023

Gallery Spotlight: Conservation with Senior Objects Conservator Sophie Hunter

Learn more about the museum’s conservation practices from Senior Objects Conservator Sophie Hunter.

Education Program

Friday, May 26

Gallery Spotlight: Identity with Shirley Kurata

Free with general museum admission, the Gallery Spotlight Series is a conversation with featured guests every last Friday of the month.

Education Program

Friday, June 23, 2023

Gallery Conversation in Partnership with the Los Angeles LGBT Center: Stories of PRIDE with Tre’vell Anderson

Learn more about author Tre’vell Anderson and LGBTQ+ representation in film.

Education Program

June 30, 2023

Gallery Spotlight: Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898–1971

Free with general museum admission, the Gallery Spotlight series is a conversation with featured guests every last Friday of the month.

Mt. Rushmore backdrop from North by Northwest (1959), gift of the Coakley Family and JC Backings Corporation, Courtesy Academy Museum Foundation

Education Program

12:00-12:45pm

Gallery Spotlight: Backdrop—An Invisible Art

Free with general museum admission, the Gallery Spotlight series is a conversation with featured guests every last Friday of the month.

Photography within Boyz n the Hood Gallery, Significant Movies and Moviemakers

Education Program

July 28, 2023

Gallery Spotlight: Significant Movies and Moviemakers - Boyz N the Hood

Join us for a conversation in the Significant Movies and Moviemakers: Boyz N the Hood gallery with Location Manager, Kojo Lewis, and native South Central, Los Angeles artist Uber Lopez Enamorado. The Boyz N the Hood gallery explores the movie's groundbreaking depiction of Black life in South Central as well as its lasting impact on popular culture.

The Path to Cinema: Highlights from the Richard Balzer Collection, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Photo by Joshua White, JWPictures/©Academy Museum Foundation

Education Program

Friday, Sept 29, 2023

Gallery Spotlight: The Path to Cinema with Jessica Niebel

Free with museum general admission, the Gallery Spotlight series is a monthly conversation with featured guests.

Education Program

Nov 10, 2023

Gallery Spotlight: Land Acknowledgement

Free with museum general admission, the Gallery Spotlight series is a monthly conversation with featured guests.

Education Program

December 15, 2023

Gallery Spotlight: Music and Film with Paravi

Free with museum general admission, the Gallery Spotlight series is a monthly conversation with featured guests.

Education Program

January 26

Gallery Spotlight: The Legacy of John Singleton

Free with museum general admission, the Gallery Spotlight series is a monthly conversation with featured guests.

Education Program

Saturday, January 6th

Gallery Conversation with Gregory Nava

Join us for a conversation with director, writer, and producer Gregory Nava as he discusses the influences and impact on his creativity as a filmmaker as well as El Norte (1983).

Education Program

February 16, 2024

Gallery Spotlight: Transformation with Yolanda Toussieng

Join the Academy Museum in conversation with two-time Academy Award-winning hairstylist Yolanda Toussieng as we explore the innovation and technique of designing characters through hairstyling.