Location manager John Panzarella (Midnight Run, LA Confidential, The Italian Job, Vice) will receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) at the 9th Annual LMGI Awards. The LMGI Awards ceremony is returning live to the Los Angeles Center Studios on Saturday, August 27, 2022.
LMGI president and awards committee chair John Rakich noted, “The LMGI is honored to recognize John Panzarella, who has made indelible contributions to the craft of location management. With a career that spanned over 35 years of cinema classics and the great fortune to work with some amazing directors, producers and legendary production designers, it’s highly likely he has location managed more feature film days in Los Angeles than any other location manager. He is most deserving to be honored with this year’s LMGI Lifetime Achievement Award.”
Known for his creative vision, Panzarella has turned the Los Angeles locale into a stand-in for many foreign locations. While working on Vice starring Christian Bale as former Vice President Dick Cheney, the location manager’s team managed to find seven countries and six states spanning six decades in and around L.A. Vice was Panzarella’s final project before retiring.
Among his more than 50 movies, Panzarella’s many credits include Lethal Weapon, Grand Canyon, Disclosure, The Parent Trap, Nurse Betty, Bandits, Elizabethtown, World Trade Center, Charlie Wilson’s War, Larry Crowne, Aloha, Hail, Caesar!, Jason Bourne and Rules Don't Apply.
He has worked on numerous films for directors Cameron Crowe, Larry Kasdan, Blake Edwards, Barry Levinson, Curtis Hanson, Mike Nichols, Nancy Meyers, Warren Beatty and the Coen Brothers, among many others. His closest ties have been with the talented production designers Jeanine Oppewall and Clay Griffith, and the location manager has worked with Academy Award® winners Bill Creber, Ted Haworth, Dean Tavoularis and Patrice Vermette.
The LMGI Awards honor the creative visual contributions by location professionals in film, television and commercials from around the globe. Outstanding service by film commissions is also recognized for their support “above and beyond” during the production process.
