2025 in Review: Perfect Costumes & Other Visual Delights

by Nathaniel R

I had briefly hoped to do a huge post in each awards category but in the interest of time and availability thereof, we have to wade into the deep end. Herewith a random shout out to 4 costumes from the film year that I think are special in some way. ONLY THE FIRST IS A NOMINEE for Best Costume Design (here at TFE) but in the interest of spreading the wealth I really wanted to shout out some films randomly and these were the first four I thought of.  I love costume designers with all my heart. They regularly elevate and enrich storytelling and especially when costumes aren't the focus of the picture, they get way too little credit for it. 

Willa's Act Three Ensemble - One Battle After Another
If you ask me four time Oscar winner Colleen Atwood had been running on fumes for some years trapped as she was in Burtonisms and puffy shoulder fetishes. Something in Paul Thomas Anderson's near future battlefields -- not her usual type of assignment - set her imagination free again. She makes one inspired choice after another...

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Critics Choice Voters All Infected By "Sinners"

by Nathaniel R

SINNERS

As a voting member, despite my votes rarely being reflected in nominations, it is my duty to share the annual Critics Choice Award Nominations. As is increasingly the case in modern awards voting, hardly a problem unique to the CCAs, there is far less spread the wealth than there use to be. I believe this is an unintended consequence of expanded Best Picture lists which theoretically narrow voters ideas about a) what they should watch and b) what they should vote for without "wasting" their precious few ballot spots. This year FOUR pictures had double digit nominations with Ryan Coogler's genre hopping vampire picture Sinners scoring 17 (gulp) nominations, just one shy of Barbie's all time record (18). One Battle After Another was in second place with 14 nominations. 

Anyway let's get to the nominations, some commentary, and a few Oscar punditry notes, too.... 

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Eye Candy Predix Pt 2: Will "Wicked" be crowned again in Costume Design?

by Nathaniel R

WICKED FOR GOOD

I cheered when Paul Tazewell won Best Costume Design and Nathan Crowley won Production Design for Wicked and yet I also felt a sense of dread. One of my great popculture fears in this franchise era is that the Oscars will one day lose their identity and become something akin to the Emmys with the same achievements winning again and again. Naturally then I'm excited to see new variations on the pinks and greens and golds and blacks of Wicked's color palette in Wicked For Good but also don't want to see it win back to back Oscars in the eye-candy categories, since it's essentially one long film, split into two. (It's the same reason I rolled my eyes that the Academy felt the need to nominate Stuart Craig and Stepheni McMillan for a full half of the Harry Potter franchise films even though their work was strong).

So what might oppose total Wicked dominance in the eye-candy categories come Oscar time?  Specifically costume design...

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The Costume Designers Guild loves themselves some Witches

by Cláudio Alves

Paul Tazewell is dancing through the season, toward an Oscar win for WICKED.

PGA this, DGA that, SAG whatever. The most important guild in my heart is the Costume Designers Guild (CDG), formed by those great artists who clothe our movie stars and style the pictures we love so dearly. This year, they're feeling especially witchy with their nominations, somehow bestowing three nominations on Agatha All Along and two for the Dune universe and the formidable Bene Gesserit sisterhood. And, of course, there's Wicked with its aesthetically opposite duo – green does go well with pink. I imagine Paul Tazewell is about to win his first Academy Award for the blockbuster musical, this CDG nod and likely victory a stepping stone on his path to Oscar gold. 

But enough about magical women. Let's assess the complete CDG nominations…

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Sleepy Hollow @ 25: Tim Burton's last great movie

by Cláudio Alves

When Beetlejuice Beetlejuice celebrated its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, many critics rejoiced, eager to announce Tim Burton's return to form. But were such proclamations accurate? While the ghost story sequel had its merits, besting many of the director's more recent efforts, it still felt lacking compared to his early triumphs, that dream run from the mid-80s to the late-90s. I'd go so far as saying that Burton's last truly great movie arrived at the end of the last millennium, when he re-imagined the Legend of the Headless Horseman and delivered a spooky season classic that feels like Fall vibes distilled into filmic form. That very picture celebrates the quarter-century mark today, so it should be an excellent time to revisit it. Dear reader, pack up your things and join me on a journey to Sleepy Hollow…

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