By Cláudio Alves
Will a Tarantino movie finally be nominated for Best Production Design?
Let's take a look at the Best Production Design Oscar race. While period pieces and fantasy extravaganzas dominate the costuming category, production designers are more open to other styles, too, like sci-fi, contemporary excellence, and even superhero movies. That said, at least in regards to the films that have already opened, the major contenders are roughly the same as with the Best Costume Design Oscar race.
THOSE WE'VE ALREADY SEEN
Rick Heinrichs designed Dumbo's spectacular sets.
Rick Heinrichs won an Oscar for a previous collaboration with Tim Burton (Sleepy Hollow) and his designs for Dumbo are quite good, like nightmare visions of an Art Deco Disneyland. I’m less enchanted with Gemma Jackson’s pseudo-Arabian designs, but it would be foolish to count Aladdin out of the race...
The likeliest contender seems to be Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Barbara Ling beautifully recreates the Los Angeles of 1969 as well as several movie sets whose fakeness is as deliberate as it is delightful. It’s about time a Tarantino movie was nominated for the Best Production Design Oscar.
Ad Astra is a triumph of design.
Ad Astra, another Brad Pitt movie, is a staggering achievement of futurism married to a disarming sense of mundanity. Kevin Thompson’s sets feel both alien and familiar. The same could be said of Joker, whose early 80s urban landscape is an echo of the New York of yore but also seems wrong, like a corrupted memory. Considering all the buzz surrounding the movie, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the talented Mark Friedberg nominated (except for the fact that they've yet to honor him).
Batman (1989) and The Dark Knight (2008) were both nominated for Best Production Design.
Unlike the Venice winner, Downton Abbey doesn’t ever try to make its audience uncomfortable. It’s an exercise in meeting the viewer’s expectations and giving them exactly what they want – elaborate drawing rooms and royal dinners, military parades and busy kitchens. Its greatest obstacle will probably be the snobbery of the Academy when facing a production that started on TV.
In Parasite, social hierarchies are materialized by architecture.
Moving on from the historical past, we have Parasite. Bong Joon-Ho’s masterpiece has, without a doubt, some of the best production design of the year. Still, you can’t be too confident about a Korean film set in modern times getting into the craft categories, despite the unanimous critical acclaim.
LIKELY CONTENDERS WE'VE YET TO SEE
Can The Aeronauts soar to a nomination?
Little Women and The Aeronauts both promise 19th century environments and, in one case, an ostentatious balloon. For the 20th century we have two war-time films. 1917’s Denis Gassner, an Academy favorite working within a genre this category has generously appreciated in the recent past. Jojo Rabbit is also a possibility but Oscar is tricky to predict when it comes to comedic designs.
What the Academy seems to love without reserve is good midcentury sets, so don't be surprised to see The Irishman’s Bob Shaw, Ford v Ferrari’s François Audouy or Motherless Brooklyn’s Beth Mickle among the eventual nominees.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is also a strong contender.
Never doubt the power of nostalgia.
Finally, we have Cats. There’s always some visual effects extravaganza nominated for Best Production Design and this branch’s love for movie musicals is almost as intense as the Golden Globes’. We should also consider that all of Tom Hooper’s movies since The King Speech have been nominated in this category and he’s once again working with Eve Stewart, one of the best. At four nominations and no wins she’s heading into overdue territory. Will this be her time to win, at last?
Cats looks terrifying but that might not deter Oscar's adoration. Which films do you think they'll go for?