CDG Award winners: 'Dune' and 'Cruella' to fight it out at the Oscars

by Nathaniel R

Andrew Garfield accepting his prize

The Costume Design Guild Awards were held last night. Teary Andrew Garfield received the Spotlight Award and said costume designers were his favourite to collaborate with. Producers Amy Pascal and Rachel O'Connor where honored as Distinguished Collaborators and Sharen Davis received the Career Achievement Award. The late Anthony Powell was also inducted into the CDG Hall of Fame by Glenn Close in a prerecorded segment. The Costume Designers Guild divvies their annual prizes up into Contemporary, Fantasy, and Period which means that three films get to share honors. This year they went for Coming 2 America, Dune, and Cruella... the latter two are also competing for the Oscar. Winners and comments after the jump... 

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Film Bitch Awards ~ Oscar Parallel Categories Complete!

by Nathaniel R

The Oscar-adjacent portion of our annual Film Bitch Awards is complete (i.e. if Nathaniel had a ballot)... 

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Oscar Volley: ‘Cruella’ is the one to beat in Best Costume Design

Continuing our Oscar Volley series at The Film Experience.  Cláudio Alves and Glenn Dunks discuss Best Costume Design

Cláudio Alves: This is my favorite Oscar race! I studied Costume Design in college and still design for theater. However, that doesn't necessarily correlate to my appreciation of the Oscar category. That admiration stems instead from this branch's propensity for lone nominees, the recognition of films with little to no hope of breaking into other races. Sometimes, that lonely contender even wins, though it's been over a decade since that last happened – 2006's Marie Antoinette with costumes by Milena Canonero.

Truthfully, I could envision that occurring this year with Cruella. Beyond that Disney fashion show, one wonders if there'll be any surprise single-category nominees. Honestly, I'm having trouble coming up with a potential candidate unless it's Cyrano or House of Gucci drastically underperforms. What about you, Glenn? 

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CDG Nominations: 'Gucci' is IN, 'Spencer' is OUT

by Cláudio Alves

My reaction, seeing SPENCER snubbed, yet again.

The Costume Designers Guild announced its nominations for the 2021 movie and TV year. Some trends continue to accentuate, including the industry's lack of passion for Spencer and the resurgence of Nightmare Alley as an awards contender. House of Gucci is also getting a boost, as is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which scores an inexplicable nomination here. Overall, though, this was a good day for the Marvel industrial complex, scoring nods across the board, both for their big screen and small screen fare. As far as victory predictions go, Jenny Beavan's Disney couture for Cruella seems like the obvious choice. 

Come check out the full lineups and additional comments after the jump…

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Contemporary Costume Design - an FYC overview

by Nathaniel R

We don't get "finalist" lists for half of the craft categories so theoretically everything is still in the running for the visual categories of Cinematography, Editing, Costume, and Production Design. Today let's focus on Best Costume Design options for awards voters. While two-time winner Jeanny Beavan's work on Cruella has been looking like a potential Oscar-winner since way back in May, plenty of competition has arrived since. Our first clue as to what the industry might go for here will be on January 26th with the CDGA (Costume Designers Guild Awards) nominations which divide movies up into period, sci-fi/fantasy, and contemporary. That's a handy way to do it, since it's too easy to fall into "Most Costuming" otherwise and entirely ignore the breadth of what is possible in this field. 

What follows are NOT predictions as to what the Guild or the Oscars might choose (craft predictions are here) but FYCs if you will, highlighting six options we think are interesting in the realm of "contemporary" (mostly)...

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