James Bartol is a New York-based production designer and art director known for creating immersive atmospheres that greatly inform and enhance narrative experiences. Recently, his work was featured at SXSW with the premiere of Late Bloomers. This coming-of-age film follows the relationship between a millennial Brooklynite and an elderly Polish woman and marks James’ first-time collaboration with director Lisa Steen.
A veteran of the festival circuit, James’s work has been screened at Cannes Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival, and Tribeca Festival, among others. His client base ranges from film to print and also includes Levi’s, Nordstrom, Estée Lauder, TruTV, Investigation Discovery, and MTV. James also notably served as production designer for director Nicole Gomez-Fisher’s Good Egg, a feature following a high school drama teacher’s unconventional journey to motherhood, as well as Age of Influence, a six-part docu-series that dramatizes several famous internet influencers-turned-scammers for ABC News and Hulu.
Currently, James is working on The Beltlands, a 1980s period piece set in the Rust Belt from director Nathan Catucci. His diverse body of work showcases his ability to cultivate and immerse audiences into a variety of story worlds, regardless of size, location, or time period, in service of story. James is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and an alum of the Berlinale Talents program in production design. He currently resides in New York City.