CDG last guild to announce winners

The Costume Designers Guild have crowned the best designed costumes of the year in three categories.

In the Period Film category, Jacqueline Durran further embosses herself as the Oscar favourite for her lavish Russian couture in Anna Karenina. Affection for the late Eiko Ishioka brought her a final guild honour in the Fantasy Film category for her off-the-wall designs in Mirror Mirror (might she be a spoiler possibility at the Oscars?). Jany Temime concluded Skyfall's impressive guild run with a win in the Contemporary category for her stylish spy-thriller threads.

One Category at a Time: Costume Design

As it is in Best Production Design, having the most noticeable design elements is an essential factor to winning Best Costume Design, which is why  suspect the likely winner of Best Production Design is also primed to win here too. These two categories do often go hand in hand. Splits between two films nominated in both categories (like the one we saw last year) don't happen as often as one film winning both.

Costume Designer Guild nominees

The CDG as nominated all five of the films up for the Oscar, along with 10 others across their three feature film categories.

Excellence in Period Film

Anna Karenina – Jacqueline Durran

Argo – Jacqueline West

Les Misérables – Paco Delgado

Lincoln – Joanna Johnston

Moonrise Kingdom – Kasia Walicka-Maimone

Thrilled to see Moonrise Kingdom and Argo turn up here. I knew their subtle threads wouldn't catch the Academy's eye, but if they were going to get recognized anywhere, it would be with the guild. Good on you, CDG! But I wonder which of the three Oscar nominees in this bunch will win here? Probably Anna Karenina, but could be Les Mis or Lincoln just as easily.

Oscar Nominations! ZOMG!

First and foremost, here's the link: http://oscar.go.com/nominees (it's just easier than writing 'em all down).

Second, and more substantially, here are my reactions:

WHOA!WOW!HOLYSHIT!IDON'TBELIEVEIT!AREYOUKIDDINGME!

In a phase 1 as condensed and crazy as this, we could be forgiven for hoping the Academy would throw us a few surprises, and they certainly didn't disappoint. Best Picture was stuffed, boasting nine nominees. Seven of them I anticipated -- Argo, Django, Les Mis, Life of Pi, Lincoln, SLP, and ZDT -- but the two I didn't predict have made me a very happy man; Beasts of the Southern Wild and Amour (along with the aforementioned Argo), represent the three best movies of the year in my opinion, and it's a thrill to see all of them up for the big prize. And I thought I wouldn't have any movies to root for!