One Category at a Time: Costume Design

For a while there, it looked like the Academy might never get over its obsession with Western European royalty in this category. A string of consecutive winners made up of Marie Antoinette, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Duchess, and The Young Victoria certainly cast the discouraging impression that Oscar voters had lost all their imagination when it comes to assessing the best dressed film of the year. Perhaps those complaints actually reached enough ears to initiate some kind of mini paradigm shift. Things have been looking up in Best Costume Design for the past few years, with the Academy branching out a bit in terms of the historical eras and geographical locales that the winning costumes have evoked. And with nary a stodgy royalty drama in sight, that trend looks to continue this year.

One Category at a Time: Adapted Screenplay

The state of the writing categories for this year's Academy Awards really is a tale of two contests; One is as competitive and over-stuffed with quality as I've ever seen it, while the other is practically a wasteland of mediocrity (with the only truly exceptional screenplay appearing courtesy of an Academy error in its favour).

Today we're looking at the latter, Best Adapted Screenplay, which is so thin on genuine contenders that they had to poach one of the surefire nominees from the Original Screenplay camp just to fill things out!

My Award Nominations: Best Costume Design

I unveilled my five picks for Best Hair and Makeup this morning, but that's only half of what goes into defining the look of a character on film. Costume designers have to do a lot of heavy lifting (or sewing, as it were) on that front too.

Similarly to my opinion of the Best Supporting Actor field, I can't help but think it's been a bit of a weak year. Not to say that any of the five costume designers listed below don't deserve the praise coming their way, but I found that there weren't that many worthy contenders to pick from, which I think is reflected in my ballot's similarity to the Oscar slate (again, like in Best Supporting Actor). Consensus is boring for awards watchers, I know, but sometimes it's because the best options really are that obvious. I suppose I should look at the glass as being half full and rejoice that costume designers branch mostly got it right this year.

Some for it's worth, here are my (and many other people's) Best Costume Design nominees for 2014:

Quick Review - Inherent Vice

I honestly didn't feel that inspired to write about this one, but since Paul Thomas Anderson is one of America's foremost auteur voices, I figured he at least deserved a separate post for his latest film Inherent Vice, rather than lump it in with the capsule reviews.

Suffice it to say that I land firmly on the thumbs-down side of this divisive L.A. noir as seen through a pair of aviator shades and a haze of pot smoke. It comes off more as an empty stylistic exercise than a trippy work of art to me.

Joaquin Phoenix stars as 'Doc', a perpetually baked hippie P.I. investigating the disappearance of a housing mogul and his ex-girlfriend. That's about as much of the plot as I can summarize, because after that things become impossible to follow.

WGA Announces Nominees

The final guild of the day is also the most inconsequential, by which I refer to the Writers Guild of America. I say "inconsequential" not as a slight on their organization, but merely as an observation that their finalists for Best Adapted and Original Screenplay have little to no bearing on the Oscar race due to their long list of ineligible titles.

This year, heavyweight writing contenders that were DQed by this guild include Birdman, Selma, Mr. Turner, and The Theory of Everything. So no, don't expect Guardians of the Galaxy to earn a surprise nomination for its script.

Read some additional thoughts on all the nominees below:

CDG Adds to Busy Day of Guild Announcements

The Costume Designers Guild have unveiled their 2014 nominees in three categories, so let's get right into it with the most Oscar-correlative category, Excellence in a Period Film:

Period Film
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Milena Canonero
The Imitation Game - Sammy Sheldon Differ
Inherent Vice - Mark Bridges
Selma - Ruth E. Carter
The Theory of Everything - Steven Noble

I can hear the groaning now, but I'll defend the nomination of Theory of Everything. I liked Noble's simple colour associations with the characters. For the win, however, I'd have a tough time deciding between Grand Budapest and Inherent Vice. The outfits in those two have so much personality!

Will win: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Should win: The Grand Budapest Hotel or Inherent Vice

Two more categories after the cut.

Early Best Picture Predictions

I've been slower than usual this year at pulling myself out of March's Oscar withdrawal and gearing up for next year's awards, so my apologies to all two of you who have been impatiently itching to see my early predictions. Rest assured they'll be posted on the sidebar by the first of May (my normal deadline for early guesses), but I'll only bother doing a write-up for one category; Best Picture. And here it is: