Role of the Costume Designer:
A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, cinematographer, visual effect director, and art director. The costume designer might also collaborate with a hair/wig master or a makeup designer.
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Voting Procedures:
1. A Reminder List of all eligible motion pictures shall be sent with a nominations ballot to all costume designer members of the Art Directors Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five motion pictures.
2. To be eligible for the Costume Design award, the costumes for the picture must have been conceived by a costume designer. It is the intention of this rule to recognize the designing of costumes for their special use in motion pictures. Eligibility shall be determined by the costume designer members of the Art Directors Branch present at a meeting called specifically for that purpose prior to the mailing of nominations ballots.
3. In accordance with Rule Two Paragraph 5, only principal position credit(s) shall be considered eligible for the Costume Design award.
4. The five motion pictures receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Costume Design award.
5. Final voting for the Costume Design award shall be restricted to active and life Academy members.
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Eligible Films:
Just like, Film Editing, all of the films on the official ‘Reminder List’ are eligible. However, in accordance of rule #2 (above), if the costumes in a film, receiving enough votes to receive a nomination, were not conceived by a costume designer for special use in the film, it will be deemed ineligible. The top 5 eligible films receive nominations.
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Nominations:
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Nominee Run-Down:
Anonymous - Lisy Christl (Costume Period: Elizabethan)
Lisy Christl is a German costume designer who stated in 1995. In 2009, she received a German Film Award for the costumes in Gallenberger's film ‘John Rabe’. This is her first Oscar nomination.
The Artist - Mark Bridges (Costume Period: 1920s – 1930s, plus various period movie costumes... for the movies within the movies.)
Mark Bridges has never been nominated for an Oscar, but his work on this black-and-white period piece is likely to make for his first nomination as one of the frequently touted virtues of The Artist is how easily it settles into its period.
Hugo - Sandy Powell (Costume Period: 1930s)
Sandy Powell has nine Oscar nominations for Best Costume Design to her name, winning three times for The Young Victoria, The Aviator and Shakespeare in Love, the latter of which was a year she was nominated twice, the other for Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine. To say a nomination is expected for her work on Martin Scorsese's nostalgic ode to cinema would be an understatement and you wouldn't be blamed if you picked her to win.
Jane Eyre - Michael O’Connor (Costume Period: Victorian)
Jane Eyre costume designer Michael O'Connor recently won the Oscar for The Duchess in 2009. It's his only nomination to this point making me wonder if he can go two-for-two with his work on this Charlotte Bronte adaptation.
W.E. - Arianne Phillips (Costume Period: 1930s and Contemporary)
While critics took turn taking shots at Madonna's new film, the one thing they all seemed to agree on was the look of the feature, something costume designer Arianne Phillips can give herself a nice pat on the back for. However, she's used to receiving kudos having been nominated once before for her work on Walk the Line along with a recent BAFTA nomination for her costumes in A Single Man.
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Snubs:
To be 100% honest, ‘Anonymous’ and ‘W.E.’ aren’t really showing up, consistently, on nomination lists for other prestigious awards. However, Jill Taylor, who designed the costumes for ‘My Week with Marilyn’ has garnered recognition from the British Academy and the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Previously, Jill has designed for Woody Allen’s ‘Match Point’ and ‘The Full Monty’.
Unfortunately, for Jill, there are a lot of ‘modern’ designs being nominated this year… and by ‘modern’ I mean time periods after the advent of the zipper. With ‘The Artist’ and ‘Hugo’ consistently nominated for their designs at every major awards ceremony, it seems like there wasn’t enough zipper space for Jill. Sorry Jill!
That said, ‘W.E.’ is also a zipper design, however, Arianne’s design had a much broader scope, incorporating two very different modern time periods, which I think set her apart.
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Oscar Trends:
I just LOVE the Art Directors Branch of the Academy. They don’t really toe the line with Best Picture category. Believe it or not, since 1967 (when the Academy consolidated the Color and B/W costume categories) only 50% of the winning costume designs have come from a Best Picture nominated film. And only 25% of those winner were from films Best Picture winners… so honestly, this one is really tough to call!
In more recent years, the last six winners in this categories were not, also, nominated for Best Picture… which could give ‘Anonymous’, ‘Jane Eyre’, and ‘W.E.’ an edge.
Costume Design Guild: Another 50% statistic comes from the CDG… Their annual winner also wins the Oscar only about half the time. And get this… this year’s honoree is ‘W.E.’!!! However, this is the only other nomination/award Arianne Phillips has received this year… so… I don’t know. It’s 50/50.
British Academy Awards: It has been 19 years since a film has won the Oscar in this category without also earning a BAFTA Nomination. Only ‘The Artist’, ‘Hugo’, and ‘Jane Eyre’ received BAFTA nominations. So...
Broadcast Film Critics Association: ‘The Artist’ has already won this award, defeating ‘Hugo’ and ‘Jane Eyre’… but how does that hold up with past year trends? Well… it’s tough to say. They have only been giving this award for three years… and well… they have been batting 100%. Every winner of the BFCA Custome Award has gone on to win the Oscar… so far.
Phoenix Film Critics Association: These guys also gave their annual award to ‘The Artist’. Seven of the last eleven recipients of this award also won the Oscar.
A lot of critics believe ‘Hugo’ will win, which is always a possibility… however the numbers just don’t support their claims. I really think this category will come down to ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘The Artist’… and well…
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Prediction: The Artist - Mark Bridges
For my complete (weighted) list of Oscar Predictions click here!
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