23 Days Until Oscar - Your Vote For Costume Design?

This year's costume design lineup is a mix of three two time nominees (Johnston, previously nominated for Lincoln, Boyle, previously nominated for The Queen, and Zophres, previously nominated for True Grit), one of Oscar's all time favorites (three time winner Atwood), and the new-to-Oscar  Madeline Fontaine from France who designed the costumes of Jackie and was previously best known for costuming French pictures like Amelie and Yves Saint Laurent.

Who would you vote for and who do you think might win?
This category doesn't feel entirely easy to predict this year. La La Land will surely win at least a handful of Oscars but will Costume Design be one of them?  Zophres does simplicity beautifully but Oscar voters tend to prefer Most to Best. Johnston probably wins the "most beautiful costumes" prize for the very Old Hollywood stylish Allied but she's the only nominee whose film has no support from other branches so she seems unlikely.

Costume Guild Nominees: Hail Caesar, AbFab, Doctor Strange, Etc...

The Costume Designers Guild has spoken their mind in 7 categories. Let's look at their nominees shall we?

Excellence in Period Film
The Dressmaker – Marion Boyce, Margot Wilson
Florence Foster Jenkins – Consolata Boyle
Hail, Caesar! – Mary Zophres
Hidden Figures – Renee Ehrlich Kalfus
Jackie – Madeline Fontaine

You might think "oh, that's the Oscar list!" but clutch your pearls or other design accessories. There are so many more options for the Academy in period that missed here (Silence anyone?) and in the other categories with Contemporary (which might have a contender this year with La La Land) and Fantasy nominations... which Oscar takes almost as seriously as Period Pieces in this category...

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April Foolish Predictions: Visual Categories

Hello Dear Reader! Your host Nathaniel checking in from a screening and chart-making frenzy. I'm heading off to my jury meeting at the Nashville International Film Festival (New Directors competition) to bestow prizes. But I wanted to point you to chart updates (the remainder will premiere this week to complete our April Foolish tradition). So let's talk costume design and cinematography and such. (lots more after the jump)

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Eddie Redmayne and the Fantastic Beasts

Manuel here sharing the first look at Best Actor incumbent Eddie Redmayne in his first* blockbuster outing.

Yes, that's everyone's favorite ginger as Newt Scamander in the Harry Potter spinoff series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which takes its title from one of the many textbooks Harry & co. used during their tenure at Hogwarts which J.K. Rowling actually released as a real book back in 2001, and if you've gotten this far and understood what all of those things mean, chances are you are the teensiest bit excited about plunging back into the world of wands and wizards. (And/or irritated at WB's shameless attempt at keeping the franchise alive).

And if you're wondering who's responsible for Redmayne's oh-so-dapper look  it's none other than the great Colleen Atwood. And if this is any indication, the film will at least be pretty to look at. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to shop around for a sapphire blue coat and brown wool suit.

*He'll surely want us to forget Jupiter Ascending.

Let's Talk Costume Design

Manuel here to talk costume design, one of my favorite Oscar categories. Today’s detour into this category comes courtesy of this very cool “Oscar by the numbers” infographic MTV came up with which makes the bold statement that “Zero” is “the number of oscar nominations for women behind the scenes.” I’m sure they were hoping to point out the absence of women like Gillian Flynn (in Adapted Screenplay) and Ava Duvernay (in Directing) but isn’t it horribly misleading? You don’t have to go far to see Oprah Winfrey & Dede Gardner (Selma), Cathleen Sutherland (Boyhood) and Helen Estabrook (Whiplash) nominated in the Best Picture category, but you’re mostly also ignoring the women nominated in Production Design, Make up and Hairstyling and, of course, Costume Design. Aren’t these women working “behind the scenes”? This last category is to my mathematically challenged mind (and I’d have to double check the shorts categories to be sure), the only one outside of the actress nominations where we see an overabundance of female nominees.

And so, I wanted to highlight the work of the five costume designers nominated this year. If there’s one thing to be said about the increasingly PR-driven world of Oscar campaigning is the careful attention to the crafts categories as showcases for those working “below the line” as one would say. And so here are sketches (with accompanying links of where to read more about these designers and their work) from the five nominated films...

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