Nancy Steiner
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Alice Babidge
TRUE HISTORY OF THE KELLY GANG

Finalists:
Anna B Sheppard Eurovision Song Contest: Story of Fire Saga, Suzi Harman & Robert Worley for Personal History of David Copperfield, Trish Summerville for Mank

Semi-Finalists:
Mark Bridges for News of the World , April Napier for First Cow, Bina Daigler for Mulan,  and Amelia Baksic for Shirley

Christopher Blauvelt
FIRST COW

  Viktor Kosakovskly & Egil Hakjold Larsen for
GUNDA

 Joshua James Richards
NOMADLAND

 Jingsong Dong
WILD GOOSE LAKE

Finalists: Lachlan Milne for Minari and Sergio Armstrong for Ema and Hoyte van Hoytema for Tenet,

Semi-Finalists: Hoyte van Hoytema for Tenet, Roger Horrocks for My Octopus Teacher, Lisabi Fridell for And Then We Danced, Karim Hussain for Possessor, Katelin Arizmendi for Swallow

Anthony Gasparro
FIRST COW

 That memorable shack as home sweet home, and the embryos of civilization

More on this achievement

Donald Graham Burt
MANK

  Old Hollywood recreated and skewered but mostly fthose parties and the Hearst castle.

More on this achievement.

David Crank
NEWS OF THE WORLD

For the year's most immersive recreation of old troubled mythic places in the American Southwest.

 Cristina Cassali
PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD

 For its theatricality and invention. For being as lively as the bustling movie it holds tight in memorable homes and rooms.

Michael Perry
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

For a darkly comic take on production design and especially for its "set decoration as weapon" as Daniel aptly put it.

More on this achievement.

Finalists: Peter Francis for the perpetual subtle shifts in kitchen, office, and especially that foyer in The Father, and Sue Chan  for the clutterred haunted house in Shirley

Semi-Finalists: Kave Quinn for Emma. , Sarah Finlay for the fossilization of Ammonite, Erin Magill for Swallow, Grant Major for Mulan, Sergey Ivanov for Beanpole

A special thank you in this category to Daniel Walber's reliably fascinating series "The Furniture" and how much it often enhances and crystallizes our own decidely less articulate reactions to great overall design and the intricacies of set work. 

 Levan Akin & Simon Carlgren
AND THEN WE DANCED

 Strong dance sequence and organic storytelling flow.

Yorgos Lamprinos
THE FATHER

 For is steady non-aggressive disorientations and skillful handling of performance.

Enat Sidi
I CARRY YOU WITH ME

 Wonderfully evocative work merging and sliding between doc and drama, present and past.

Chloe Zhao
NOMADLAND

As poetic as editing gets, really. Is there anything Zhao can't do?

Andrew Dickler & Matt Friedman
PALM SPRINGS

For its looping images, superb pacing, and nimble performance dance.

Finalists: Harry Yoon for beautiful assistance with Minari 's emotionality,  Frédéric Thoraval for the aggression and dare of that of Promising Young Woman, and Jennifer Lame for the backwards/forwards action play of Tenet

Semi-Finalists: Janus Billeskov Jansen & Anne Østerud for Another Round, Mikkel EG Nielsen for Sound of Metal, Kelly Reichardt for First Cow , Jiniel Kong and Matthieu Laclau for  Wild Goose Lake

LOVE AND MONSTERS

 The year's most enjoyable traditional CG work wih all those mutated creatures. "Everything will try and kill you."

THE MIDNIGHT SKY

Space station adventures, apocalyptic hallucinations, and zero gravity blood flow.

POSSESSOR

 Here's to horrific invention in the area of practical in-camera effects. Melting faces, rear-projected screams, and more.

TENET

Nolan's films are reliably wondrous in th realm of this particular craft. Those time-bending action sequences are something. 

WELCOME TO CHECHNYA

 Visual effects brilliantly harnessed as both safety precautions and sublime storytelling.

Finalists: The Invisible Man isn't reinvening the effects wheel but it's so finely realized. Wish there was room for it above!

Semi Finalists: Soul  (mosly for the great beyond), Mank  (strong supporting fx),Birds of Prey  (mostly for colorful explosiveness), Mulan  (mostly for Gong Li and the Phoenix), The New Mutants  (mosly for the Demon Bear), Project Power  (mostly for that chameleon thief)

BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM

Disguises that are meant to let you in on the joke and Tutar's comically extreme transformation.

EMMA.

 Those Regency 'dos, and dewy or shaggy beauty. Nonchalant glamour via Emma's confidence.

HILLBILLY ELEGY

 Glenn's fright wig and faisuit & Amy's haggard junkie. They read as more authentic than much of the movie.

MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM

 Ma Rainey's memorable overkill on stage makeup and sweaty artists trying to make through the day.

MULAN

Memorable character work on various antagonists and that heightened "matchmaker" sequence [INTERVIEW]

Finalists: Comic book Fun with Harley Quinn's messy kitsch glamour in Birds of Prey, Avenging angel and its own self awareness "blow job lips tutorial!" Promising Young Woman, Like Mulan, a huge project with stylized "characters" for Jingle Jangle

Semi Finalists: Mank, Possessor, Personal History of David Copperfield, Shirley