Oscar Volley: Will it be Period Perfection or Fantastical Visions as the winner of "Best Costume Design"?

Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Chris James and Juan Carlos Ojano discussing Costume Design.

CARLOS: Hi, Chris! I would like to confess that I am terrified to talk about this category. For the last few years, I have just made my picks without actually articulating specific reasons. Maybe I don't have the necessary vocabulary or real-life knowledge in costuming or maybe because I'm still working on veering away from my preconceived notion of "Best" as "Most" or "Prettiest". But that fear also makes this exciting, and to do this with you - huzzah!

All right. Let's get down to business. What do we have here? Two Best Picture nominees, two Best Picture-adjacent films, and a lone nominee from a favourite designer in this category. In the expanded ballot era, a time where a lot of the categories have gone (or in some cases, defaulted) to Best Picture nominees alone, this category has demonstrated a level of independence. Out of the past thirteen winners, seven were non-Best Picture nominees (that's 54%, more than half!). So if you're predicting the winner, stats aren't necessarily helpful...

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Nom Reactions Pt 2: Lovely Craft, Headscratching Honors, Default Diane, and Sexiest Shortlist

We polled the team plus some friends of the site about their Oscar nomination reactions and wanted to share those little blurbs with you! (Here's the first four of eight questions if you missed those). Today's questions are...

1. What was your favourite non-acting nomination?
2. Which nomination was the biggest headscratcher?
3. Can anything be done about Diane Warren?
4. The sexiest category is ______

Our answers are after the jump and yours go in the comments...

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Who will be nominated for Costume Design?

by Nathaniel R

Shirley Kurata's costumes for "Jobu Tupaki" in EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE are great chaotic fun

Let's tackle each Oscar category while there's still wiggle room for all contenders! Last season Best Costume Design was sewn up (sorry!) unusually early in the year when Jenny Beavan's garbage dress unfurled midway through Cruella (2021) in the summer movie season. From then on it was everyone versus Cruella and Beavan came out on top for the third time in her delicious career. The costumes of 2022 haven't really had one showstopping gown to end everyone else's Oscar dreams so it's anyone's guess at this point.

Let's discuss 8 films we think are major threats for those 5 nomination slots and why. It seems natural to start with two films where fashion is a co-lead of sorts...

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Weekend Box Office: Elvis, Crawdads, Mrs Harris, and more...

by Nathaniel R

Despite a steep drop in sales Thor Love and Thunder held the top spot over the weekend;  A nearly 70% drop from mountains of gold still means you're raking it in! Thor was also the only wide release to hold on to all of its theaters since the studios actually released new movies this weekend (GASP) with Where the Crawdads Sing (which did well), Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, and Paws of Fury all arriving in wide release and aiming for different audiences. With Elvis, Minions, and Top Gun still attracting moviegoers, there was really something for everyone at the multiplexes. We need more lineups like that if moviegoing is ever going to be healthy again, regardless of the wildly varying quality of the 10 films in wide release.

Weekend Box Office July 15th-17th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	PLATFORM RELEASES
WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING	FIRE OF LOVE

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Review: Lesley Manville in "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris"

Who wouldn't want to travel with Lesley Manville to Paris this summer?By: Christopher James

Make Lesley Manville the star of every movie. I’m serious, Hollywood. Do it. As the titular character in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, the Oscar nominated character actress brings heart, humor and gumption to her Cinderella-esque heroine. Even from the trailer alone, you can understand the type of frothy entertainment that awaits. The movie attempts to go a bit deeper at times, but it more or less lives up to what the trailer advertised. This is a light, fun time at the ovies with beautiful gowns and great performances. What takes it from a watch-on-a-plane movie to a must-see matinee is a galvanizing and endearing performance by Manville.

We find our titular character, Ada Harris (Lesley Manville), in the midst of bad news...

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