35 days til Oscar nominations. 35 years of Make-up 
Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at 11:00PM
NATHANIEL R in Horror, Makeup and Hair, Oscar Trivia, sci-fi fantasy

by Nathaniel R

Since there are 35 days left until Oscar nominations --well perhaps 34 by the time this is published. Damn you, ever ticking clock! -- let's look back back at the 35 films that have won the regular Achievements in Makeup Oscar. We should admit straightaway that that's fudging the number a bit for the sake of a trivia countdown. In truth 37 films have won this prize but two were before the category was an official competitive one. The first two films to be Oscared for their Makeup effects were The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao  (1964)  and the original Planet of the Apes  (1968). Nevertheless it took quite some time for a category to emerge and title changes and such until it became the character we know today (which is also sure to change again!)...

In 1980 the lack of recognition of The Elephant Man's prosthetic achievements was said to have spurred action within the Academy and the next year we had a category. Sort of. In the early days it was only 2 nominees and on the third year they skipped it altogether! It's still something of a redheaded stepchild category since it's the only category that isn't allowed five nominees. Isn't that crazy? The lack of consistency from the Academy here is not just annoying but it's insulting... like the makeup artists are deemed lesser than since they're the only ones.  There have been random years with 2 nominees, and one strange year with 4 but mostly it's been 3. And when it comes to their winners there's just no clear pattern. Sometimes they like a period piece, other times a Best Picture player, occasionally they go nuts for heavy duty genre prosthetics, and sometimes they're just wig crazy. They love old age makeup, though, regardless.

35 OSCARS FOR MAKEUP SINCE THE CATEGORY OFFICIALLY BEGAN.
If we've written about the movie's makeup before it's linked in bold below. 

1981 An American Werewolf in London

1982 Quest for Fire

1983 for some reason in the third year no nominees at all. Films they could have honored that year included Krull, Videodrome, Return of the Jedi, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Yentl, etcetera. 

1984 Amadeus

1985 Mask

1986 The Fly

1987 Harry and the Henderson's

1988 Beetlejuice

1989 Driving Miss Daisy

 

 

1990 Dick Tracy

1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day

1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula

1993 Mrs Doubtfire

1994 Ed Wood

1995 Braveheart

1996 The Nutty Professor

1997 Men in Black

1998 Elizabeth

1999 Topsy-Turvy

2000 How the Grinch Stole Christmas

2001 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

2002 Frida

2003 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2004 Lemony Snicket

2005 The Chronicles of Narnia

2006 Pan's Labyrinth

2007 La Vie En Rose

2008 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2009 Star Trek

2010 The Wolfman

2011 The Iron Lady

2012 Les Miserables

2013 The Dallas Buyer's Club 

2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel

2015 Mad Max: Fury Road

2016 Suicide Squad

 

How many of these have you seen and do you understand Oscar's predilections in this category at all? Can you spot any hidden patterns besides the fact that Tilda Swinton has been in three winners (Narnia, Budapest, and Benjamin Button) !?!

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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