What's Oscar's all-time favorite Costume Design era?

by Cláudio Alves

The legendary Ann Roth is our reigning Best Costume Design Oscar queen, having won her second statuette for the jazz age designs of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. I'm ecstatic about her victory. Both because it's an outstanding artistic achievement and because hers is a filmography that undoubtedly deserves more than one Oscar. That being said, this year's Costume race (which I previously reviewed in depth) did remind me of a pet peeve I've long had with the category—namely, the overwhelming predominance of period films and the rarity of recognition for contemporary-set narratives. As usual, all of this year's nominees featured period costuming, with even the lone fantasy film, Pinocchio, basing most of its look in mid-19th-century fashion.

With all this in mind, I decided to do some research and find out what era is most common in Best Costume Design Oscar winners. From Ancient Egypt to post-war London, this category has rewarded many styles, though some do stand out as AMPAS' favorites… 

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Directing Acting Winners / Nominees - The Updated List

By Ben Miller

The Oscars are so stat heavy, it’s difficult to keep up with the bevy of information.  One of those stats that gets lost in the noise is the more complicated numbers around acting nominations by director. If you’ve read my previous piece last year, I am somewhat of an expert in this field, and this year’s set of nominees provides some interesting stats...

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New Oscar Records!

Refresh your screen as we'll add to this list as we discover things. And we trust that you'll let us know if we got anything wrong. 

PICTURE
• Chloe Zhao is the third Asian to win Best Picture and the first of Chinese descent. (The only previous Asian winners were Koreans, Bong Joon-Ho and Kwak Sin-Ae, both for Parasite)

DIRECTOR
• Chloe Zhao is the first woman of color to be nominated for AND to win Best Director. (She is the third Asian to win Best Director following Ang Lee, twice, and Bong Joon-ho last year). She is the 7th woman to receive a nomination in this category after Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, Kathryn Bigelow (the only previous female winner), Greta Gerwig, and Emerald Fennell. Interestingly enough all but one of those women have Oscars (sorry Greta Gerwig), most of those in the Best Original Screenplay category... 

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2 days til Oscar.

by Nathaniel R

Streep's 2 wins

Our final predictions will be up tonight but until then let's share a bunch of lists using the number two as inspiration...

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3 days til Oscar. Who is the best three time winner?

Best Actress predictions change daily but where are we in regards to Frances McDormand's third Best Actress Oscars? Happening or not? I'm tentatively saying it will. That's where my brain is today at least. Frances would be only the seventh actor to manage three Oscars for acting in the 93 years of Academy history and become only the second woman to win three leading Oscars (after Katharine Hepburn).

The others who've won three acting statues:

Fargo (96), Three Billboards (17), Nomadland (20)

1. Walter Brennan -Come and Get It (36), Kentucky (38), The Westerner (40) - all in supporting
2. Ingrid Bergman -Gaslight (44), Anastasia (56), Murder on the Orient Express (74)
3. Katharine Hepburn - Morning Glory (34), Guess Who... (67), Lion in Winter (68), On Golden Pond (81) - all in leading 
4. Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (75), Terms of Endearment (83), As Good As It Gets (97)
5. Meryl Streep - Kramer vs Kramer (79), Sophie's Choice (82), The Iron Lady (11)
6. Daniel Day Lewis - My Left Foot (89), There Will Be Blood (07), Lincoln (12) - all in leading 

COMMENT PARTY QUESTION: Removing all other performances and movies from your brain (I know it's difficult) how would you rank these six packages of performances? 

COMMENT PARTY QUESTION 2: Are there any two-time winners not in the race this year that you could see winning a third?