Oscars Spotlight: Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling
Strong contenders in these craft categories may put a damper on Dune's below the line sweep.
The Nominees:
Production Design
DUNE
Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau
THE POWER OF THE DOG
Production Design: Grant Major; Set Decoration: Amber Richards
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
Production Design: Stefan Dechant; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
WEST SIDE STORY
Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo
Who Will Win: Dune
Who Could Win: Nightmare Alley
Who Should Win: Can they all get one? This is an extremely strong category, but I have to go with Dune.
Image Credit: Elle Decor
Costume Design
CRUELLA
Jenny Beavan
CYRANO
Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran
DUNE
Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Luis Sequeira
WEST SIDE STORY
Paul Tazewell
Who Will Win: Cruella
Who Could Win: West Side Story
Who Should Win: Nightmare Alley (Come on, I can’t pick Dune for everything. Or can I?)
Image Credit: Vogue
Makeup and Hairstyling
COMING 2 AMERICA
Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer
CRUELLA
Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon
DUNE
Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE
Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh
HOUSE OF GUCCI
Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras
Who Will Win: The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Who Should Win: Dune
Image Credit: Vulture
In a previous category review, I focused on below the line categories that primarily contribute to a film during the post-production phase, modifying footage after it has been shot. I predicted Dune to dominate them. The next cluster of below the line categories are “craft” categories for elements necessary during production. These artisans define the aesthetic of a film through the sets, costumes, and styling of actors. Among them, I’m tentatively predicting that Dune will only win one of the three.
If Dune really is the type of epic technical marvel that prompts a reflex vote for it in all the below the line categories, it could create some crazy upsets and raise the film’s total haul up to Mad Max: Fury Road levels. The frontrunners in Costume and Makeup/Hairstyling, however, are very strong at this point. It would be unwise to bet against them.
Furthermore, these categories have a history of picking one-off winners that don’t plug into the broader narrative of Best Picture nominees or winners. Disney’s Cruella DeVille prequel, starring Emma Stone and Emma Thompson as rival fashion designers, was made for a Best Costume Oscar. Emma Stone has 47 costume changes in the film, including a dress made out of garbage and a dress that bursts into flames and changes color. The IP-driven film is a perfect example of one that has no other Oscars prospects, but is so notable in one craft category that its win is undeniable.
The main competition for Cruella is West Side Story because I keep hearing pundits talk about Anita’s bright yellow dress. It really pops in all of the promotional materials for the film and allows anyone who sees it to instantly recall the vibrancy of that dazzling “America” number. I do agree that the yellow dress and the white dress with the red belt that Maria wears to that fateful dance are both very memorable. I’m personally very weak to the type of period clothing in Nightmare Alley, though. Rooney Mara’s coats, Cate Blanchett’s dresses, and Bradley Cooper’s suits are a vintage dream. And the white dress in that movie plays a more pivotal role in the story.
Image Credit: Polygon
In both acting and craft categories, but especially Makeup and Hairstyling, the Academy loves a drastic transformation into a real-life person. This means that if Jessica Chastain wins best actress for The Eyes of Tammy Faye (and I’m predicting she will), then the team of artists who helped her transform into Tammy Faye Bakker — building out her bulbous cheeks and reconstructing her outlandish mascara and false eyelashes — will likely share the credit. I mean…Tammy Faye’s eyes are literally in the title of the film. The opening scene features Tammy Faye lecturing a makeup artist about how they can do whatever they want, but can’t touch her eyes because they are a part of her signature look. There’s no other nominee in which the makeup is its own character in the story.
Critics often poke fun at Oscar voters for always going for “the most” or the most “extra” nominee in a category. It’s not the best editing, but has the most editing, meaning the flashiest. It’s not the best acting but the most acting, meaning the loudest or most tearful. It’s not the best makeup but it’s the most makeup. This tracks with last year’s winner, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which won for over-the-top makeup: dark, smudgy eye shadow, rouge, and bright lipstick smeared across Viola Davis’ face.
I don’t think a nominee has to recreate an iconic look of a historical figure to win an Oscar, and so my pick here would be Dune. The grotesque look they created for Stellan Skarsgard’s Baron is the most dramatic manifestation of the makeup and hair team’s work, but I also cannot forget Oscar Isaac’s magnificent beard, and the dusty faces and lightened eyes of all the Fremen characters. I know I’m starting to sound like a broken record with my pro-Dune agenda, but in order for Denis Villeneuve’s vision of Arrakis and other planets in Dune to work, each below the line artist has to be at the top of their game. Everything clicks into place to create a believable, immersive, otherworldly universe.
The one category here that I do think will go to Dune is Production Design, for the same reason I’m predicting it to win Visual Effects. Just as any CG work or other post-production efforts helped Villeneuve with nearly unparalleled science fiction world-building, the production designers had to give them a foundation upon which to build. From the bronze wall art with a giant sandworm etched in, to the bug-like ships, to the towering buildings. I especially love how each planet has such a distinct aesthetic and tone.
I would not be mad if any of the Production Design nominees won; the category as a pack is very strong. While Nightmare Alley is not as grand in scope and scale as Dune, it similarly builds a world unto itself, giving viewers a distinct sense of place in the carnival, the hotel, and, best of all, Dr. Lilith Ritter’s Art Deco dream of an office. Several guests on the predictions episode of the Chasing the Gold podcast praised the attention to detail and just how gorgeous the sets are in Guillermo del Toro’s film noir horror, and I would agree. Several Oscarologists have noted that Nightmare Alley squeaked into Best Picture and therefore might have enough support for craft recognition in a category like this one. This feels different than last year’s winner, Mank, though. That vintage-looking technical darling had 10 nominations and got 2 wins for production design and cinematography. Nightmare Alley only has four noms to its name.
Image Credit: Vanity Fair
Good production design contributes to the story of a film, and that is very true for both West Side Story and The Power of the Dog. I was, frankly, taken aback by how good the production design in West Side Story is, maybe because I don’t usually associate musicals with elaborate sets. But the cityscapes full of crumbling buildings are both visually dramatic and grounded in reality, and, most importantly, underscore how the community of the West Side is decaying and neglected, with the Jets and the Sharks representing the types of people a gentrifying society has left behind. The house and ranch featured in The Power of the Dog enhances its story too; I’m thinking in particular of the scenes where Rose feels Phil’s presence but never quite knows where he is. He’s able to spook her and the audience because the physical layout of the home has multiple levels and alleyways. And the more implicit plot of the film falls flat without meticulously crafted props like the paper flowers, hides, and braided lassos.
Image Credit: Entertainment Weekly
Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of MacBeth is last on my “should win” list because I suspect that the high contrast black and white cinematography imbues the sets with more mystique than they would otherwise have. On the other hand, maybe the look of the film wouldn’t be so arresting were it not for the more minimalist sets. All the geometric shapes and silhouettes throughout are incredibly cool. I kept wondering if Coen drew inspiration for Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. The fact that I’m evening having to nitpick over an immaculately crafted film indicates that it’s been a great year for cinematic beauty.