In this exciting installment, we talk about three categories that have the virtue of needing no explanation: Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Visual Effects.
And the nominees are . . .
Best Costume Design
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road
Best Makeup
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Best Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
The Lowdown:
Usually, makeup is supposed to be invisible–unless you want to win an Academy Award. In that case, the more noticeable it is, the better. And that’s something all these awards have in common: the showier nominees are more likely to win.
In Costume Design, this line of thinking favors period pieces–especially those set pre-20th century. That narrows your choices down to Australia and The Duchess. And if you haven’t seen any of Keira Knightley’s outfits from The Duchess–well, suffice to say that the Costume Designers’ Guild saw fit to honor them. So will AMPAS.
Aging Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett is no easy task, so it’s widely thought that Benjamin Button will win out in the Makeup category–one of the few awards the year’s most-nominated film might actually win. It should be noted, though, that much of what you might think of as great makeup was actually great CGI (see next paragraph). And don’t count out the iconic Joker makeup from The Dark Knight, which will be remembered long after the creepy little boy/old man Brad Pitt is forgotten.
That creepy little boy/old man more properly belongs in the realm of visual effects, and Benjamin Button seems a clear front-runner in this category. Dark Knight could just as easily take this–it’s an award that historically favors big-budget blockbusters–but note that some of the most impressive effects in that movie . . . weren’t effects. Flipping over a semi? They actually did that. Demolishing a building? Yeah, they did that, too. If the Academy actually deigns to notice that fact, the award goes to Benjamin Button for sure.
Still more Oscarology to come! Isn’t this fun?
