Is "Elvis" going to win the Makeup and Hair Oscar?

by Nathaniel R

Austin & Elvis. Image via YouTube comparison

The Makeup and Hair Stylist Guild (MUAHS) gives out prizes in multiple categories and this weekend at their ceremony three Oscar-nominated films in the Makeup category emerged as winners: Black Panther Wakanda Forever, The Whale, and Elvis.

 Only one of them can win at the Oscars. So which might it be? The last five Oscar winners  Darkest Hour, Vice, Bombshell, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and The Eyes of Tammy Faye only have have one thing in common: they all featured at least one famous actor, sometimes multiple famous actors, remade to look like another famous person via prosthetics. This bodes well for Elvis but it's not over till it's over and it has at least one formidable competitor, probably two. The MUAHS awards ceremony and complete list of winners is after the jump...

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PGA nominates the usual suspects plus "Wakanda Forever" and "The Whale"

by Nathaniel R

The Producers Guild of America has announced their nominations for 2022 entertainment. Their 34th annual awards will be held on Febuary 25th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Nominations and comments and some things to consider while making Oscar predictions are after the jump...

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Costume Designers Guild Nominations: "Top Gun" soars, "The Fabelmans" flounder

by Cláudio Alves

Worry not, "Fabelmans" fans. Mark Bridges may still get an Oscar nomination.

For the past two years, all the Oscar nominees in Best Costume Design were also recognized by the Costume Designers Guild, but that's not always the case. Indeed, in 2019, they didn't nominate three of the eventual Oscar nominees, including the winner – Jacqueline Durran for Little Women. All this to say that you should take this year's nominees with a grain of salt in terms of Oscar, especially regarding two big omissions – Mark Bridges for The Fabelmans and Sandy Powell for Living. Both designers have secured Oscar nominations with no corresponding guild support in the past – he for Joker, she for Gangs of New York, Mrs. Henderson Presents, and The Irishman. In any case, their lack of recognition proves that the industry may not be as into their films as previously anticipated. We shall see.

After the jump, the complete list of nominees and some further comments… 

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Weekend Box Office: The Waiting of Water

By Ben Miller

Remember a month ago when no film wanted to release ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever?  The box office is on the second verse, same as the first with the anticipation of Avatar: The Way of Water debuting next weekend.  Wakanda was tops for the fifth straight week of putrid box office.  The weekend total was just $35.5 million, which is the second worst of the year after the last weekend in January!  Thank goodness we have the Na'vi to save the box office.  God forbid studios try to release counterprogramming.  Apparently, the National Association of Theater Owners agree but Hollywood isn't cooperating...

Weekend Box Office (actuals) Dec 9th-11th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
VIOLENT NIGHT	THE WHALE
1 BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER $11.2 (cum. $409.9)	1  🔺 SPOILER ALERT  $680k (cum. $782k) 783 screens
2 VIOLENT NIGHT $8.7 (cum. $26.7)	2 🔺 THE WHALE $360k *NEW* 6 screens

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Oscar Volleys: The Worldbuilding of Production Design

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Eurocheese and Nick Taylor... 

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

EUROCHEESE: Hi Nick! We have an exciting group of larger-than-life worlds to conquer for Production Design, but maybe it would be best to start with the elephant in the room: Despite some mixed reviews on Babylon, I have to imagine if nothing else it will make its coked-up presence known here, as homage to Hollywood's glory days. Then we have two blockbuster sequels to previous Best Production Design winners, with Black Panther Wakanda Forever and Avatar The Way of Water both asking similar questions: will the branch be excited enough for an encore nomination? I'm actually leaning towards no, now that we've seen the CGI-heavy worlds. Both might make more sense in other craft categories.  I'm curious to hear your thoughts though...

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