Oscar Volley: Can anything dethrone 'Dune' in Best Production Design?
Sunday, January 30, 2022 at 11:01AM With just over a week until nominations are announced Cláudio Alves, Mark Brinkerhoff, and Nathaniel Rogers discuss the Best Production Design race…
DUNE is in it to win it.
CLÁUDIO: The Art Directors Guild of America recently announced their nominees, and I'm in love with the Period Feature lineup. The French Dispatch, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and West Side Story offer such a varied approach to the matter of scenography, either swinging towards hyper-stylization or aiming for immersive historical accuracy. Honestly, I'd be OK if AMPAS just copied the guild's picks, though that's not likely to happen. Not with Dune in the conversation. As far as I'm concerned, it'd be a massive surprise if Patrice Vermette's conception of a dilapidated future doesn't end up winning it all. The scale of the achievement is undeniable, the sense of monumentality and balance between Villeneuve's sense of severe sci-fi and Frank Herbert's Baroque descriptions.
The question, then, is which of the period nominees will get the chop and if there are other outside contenders to consider. Examining the history of AMPAS' relationship to Paul Thomas Anderson's flicks, my guess is that Licorice Pizza is the most vulnerable. What do you think, Mark?
MARK: I could see Licorice Pizza easily missing—the Academy also did ignore the equally immersive, ’70s-set 20th Century Women—and the sumptuous Nightmare Alley, The Tragedy of Macbeth, and the New York Times-featured West Side Story do seem like sure bets. The French Dispatch, too, seems like an obvious choice, though it may surprise some that only *one* of Wes Anderson’s films (the Oscar-winning The Grand Budapest Hotel) has even been nominated for Best Production Design so it could be vulnerable. Throw Dune into the mix (because why wouldn’t you?), and that leaves one wild card.
If there’s any justice/taste, The Power of the Dog, with the gorgeous South Island of New Zealand doubling as 1920s rural Montana, will get in easily. I lean towards that. Personally, despite how I may feel about the films overall, Cruella and Spencer really struck me (kudos to The Favourite’s remarkable Fiona Crombie and Guy Hendrix Dyas & Yesim Zolan, respectively) in their design elements. Though both of these *probably* will get in for Costume Design, their production design is impressive and ought not be ruled out (yet). But what can I say: I’m a sucker for ultra-stylized, glam and/or elegantly claustrophobic, atmospheric scene-setting.
Am I off my head, Nathaniel? Has the Baroness/Queen Elizabeth II gotten to me?
WEST SIDE STORY
NATHANIEL: You bring up an interesting point, inadvertently, because film is a collaborative artform and a lot of times in Oscar history, I'd argue that a craft was honored specifically because a different craft was augmenting its appeal. But that's too large a subject for this conversation and I'm not really talking about any particular film here except maybe Tragedy of Macbeth because it's a chicken and an egg situation. Is it visually stunning and dream-like due to the abstracting nature of black and white or are the minimalist sets doing that abstracting as they geometrisize the light?
There's never, to my knowledge, been a year since the ADG divvied its prizes up into 3 sections in which the Academy has just copy and pasted their entire Period Feature list so I agree that Licorice Pizza is vulnerable though maybe its The French Dispatch that gets dropped for Dune since Oscar voters often lack a sense of humor. Or maybe it's both that get dropped.
Side note: West Side Story was partially shot just one block from my apartment in 2019. For a month I got to walk "through" the decorated dressed up set daily and gawk at the fake hanging laundry, painted signs, Puerto Rican flags on my way to the subway. It wasn't quite like travelling back in time (NYC traffic and the current population were not cosplaying 1957) but it still felt like an adventure.
I do wonder if The Green Knight or even Candyman or No Time To Die (which the industry is definitely into) could surprise since they are also ADG nominees. Same goes for In the Heights albeit in a different world where it wasn't immediately dismissed based on "flopping" . Its funny how that only dashed the support for In the Heights and nothing else considering that In the Heights made 4 times as much as Belfast and twice as much as King Richard and only a little less than West Side Story, none of which are out of the race. I'm thinking that magic temporal shift of the "Patience and Faith" sequence would have gotten it nominated in this category in a kinder year.
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
CLÁUDIO: Funny that you mention The Tragedy of Macbeth since that would be my choice for Best Production Design of 2021. I think the sets are even more impressive than the justly heralded cinematography. For as much as the Expressionistic lighting plays a significant role in the film's look, the spatial dynamic of Stefan Dechant's designs feels like the primary agent of stylization. Not to mention that it often felt as if the scenography was more engaged with the text than some of the actors. Materializing the imagined dagger as a shiny door handle, glistening in the depths of a long corridor, was such an inspired move. Also, the digital sharpness of Delbonnel's lensing depends on the architectonic surfaces to feel grounded in anachronistic and ancient expression. The studio-bound conception of the outside feels even more tied to the sets than the castle itself, a critical element since Shakespeare's text is so full of considerations on the natural world, landscape, and weather, an active reflection of the human drama.
Considering it even made the Set Decorators Guild lineup despite its Spartan stylings, I'm pretty confident that Coen's tragedy will be on AMPAS' final lineup. Mark's reminder that Wes Anderson's filmography has been ignored with one exception and your note about the Academy's sense of humor make me more afraid for The French Dispatch. It would rank second in my dream ballot, yet I fear it'll be snubbed. If that does happen, I hope it's for some meritorious achievement. Recently re-watching The Power of the Dog made me keenly aware of its design excellence, and while I'm not as enamored with The Green Knight as most, it would be a fine nominee. I hope it's not Belfast. I apologize for my vitriol, since I know some love Branagh's film. Still, the sets were so glaringly bad for me. Even on re-watch, the lack of lived-in quality was evident, as was the general character anonymity, the absence of class considerations in the design. Comparing it to films such as Roma or the recent Sundance gem Mars One, it's remarkable how this portrait of an Irish family lacks a visceral sense of place.
Do you guys think I'm being unjust, too harsh, towards Belfast? Perchance more crucial to this convo, how do you find its Oscar chances?
MARK: Please, Belfast has ample opportunity to be rewarded (elsewhere) by Oscar; let’s not self-flagellate with respect to its production design chances. The Green Knight certainly is something to look at, but then so is Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, which tragically was eligible—and unforgivably ignored—during *last year’s* Oscars (given the quirk with the pandemic-driven extended eligibility window). You may think I’m kidding, but if any of Jamie Dornan’s 2021 films deserves accolades for its set designs, it’s most certainly Barb and Star, which was instantly, iconically a vibe and a mood from the very first frames. What a pity that the Academy doesn’t seem to grasp, let alone appreciate, the degree of difficulty it takes to set the scene of such a delirious, joyful alt-reality. This is A+ work that sadly gets overlooked even by craft professionals (whom you’d think would know better). But I digress…
The fact that Belfast is getting *cinematography* plaudits leads me to believe that anything’s possible, as it’s clearly quite common for various branches of Oscar voters to conflate achievements and over-reward film favorites (deserving or not) across the board. At a minimum, I hope that this year’s crop isn’t simply a copy-and-paste from the Best Picture nominees, which at least makes the prospect of an In the Heights or Candyman (!!!) in Production Design tantalizing if likely dim. Musicals tend to do very well in this category (Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, Dreamgirls, Sweeney Todd, Nine, Les Misérables, Into the Woods, La La Land, Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins Returns—all were nominated and several won this century), though seeing West Side Story and In the Heights both get in seems like a bridge too far. Which is the Academy’s loss (of imagination), truly.
NO TIME TO DIE
NATHANIEL: Barb & Star (eyes turning into hearts) "joyful alt-reality" is a perfect description. I also think Belfast is possible though not likely given that the ADG ignored it but then anything with Best Picture buzz is possible in all categories especially if voters are only watching 12 movies per year. And sometimes that appears to be true.
We didnt discuss No Time To Die but i wonder about it. The Villain's HQ / Poisonous Garden has kind of a memorable look and the industry is very obviously watching this Daniel Craig finale but i'm not quite ready to predict it. Still, it wouldn't shock me. I think i'm going like so for my final predictions:
- DUNE (lock)
- WEST SIDE STORY (probably)
- NIGHTMARE ALLEY (probably)
- THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (vulnerable)
- THE FRENCH DISPATCH (vulnerable)
alt.
- NO TIME TO DIE (because the voters are actually watching it)
- CYRANO (the Academy loves Sarah Greenwood but boy did MGM/UA screw up that campaign!)
CLÁUDIO: Before going into my final predictions, I have some last shout-outs to make. First of all, Barb & Star deserves all the praise it can get for its inventive production design, a Lisa Frank tropical paradise like nothing I've seen on film before. Other ineligible wonders include the Manchurian winter wonderland of Cliff Walkers, the conflagration of cultural imports in The Orphanage, and Roy Andersson's proto-apocalyptic dioramas in About Endlessness. Finally, if I could grant one eligible but impossible nod in this category, it'd be for The Night House. Prerna Chawla's designs make horror out of architecture, transforming reflective households into little treasure boxes full of secrets, demons hidden in the negative space of dark corridors.
As for predictions, mine are:
- DUNE (it's beyond a lock at this point)
- NIGHTMARE ALLEY (its overperformance with guilds indicates strong industry support)
- THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (if Hail Caesar made it, so will this)
- WEST SIDE STORY (it's vulnerable, but Spielberg is Spielberg, and Stockhausen had one hell of a year)
- NO TIME TO DIE (you've convinced me, Nathaniel)
Alternatives are THE FRENCH DISPATCH and THE POWER OF THE DOG, for the former's sheer spectacle and the latter's smart campaigning. Maybe I'm being foolishly optimistic by not including BELFAST, but so be it.
THE POWER OF THE DOG
MARK: So many intriguing recommendations, Cláudio, of films heretofore unseen (by me). I shall add them to the list. Methinks The Power of the Dog is going to clean up BIG, nominations-wise, so I’m going to stick to my guns and predict it in production design. Here goes nothing:
- Dune
- Nightmare Alley
- The Power of the Dog
- The Tragedy of Macbeth
- West Side Story
Alt.
- The French Dispatch
- Licorice Pizza
Is that wishful thinking? Hoping for a shocker in this (and, honestly, every) category come Oscar nominations morning.
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Reader Comments (7)
I am less confident that Adam Stockhausen and Rena DeAngelo will receive nominations for both The French Dispatch and West Side Story. AMPAS voters have occasionally awarded multiple nods in other below the line categories but not in production design. In the past 25 years, the sole double nominee was set decorator Anna Pinnock in 2014. Working with different production designers, Pinnock won for The Grand Budapest Hotel and was nominated for Into The Woods.
Finbar -- Sarah Greenwood was also double-nominated in that time (2017 - Beauty & The Beast / Darkest Hour) so they do sometimes do that. But yes. I feel like Stockhausen is vulnerable.
Having brutalist sets doesn't equal great production design. I hate this Chris Nolan/Denis Villeneuve-led trend, that you can see also in No Time to Die, as the picture in this post shows. I've been hating it since Villeneuve sanitized the wonderful chaos of Blade Runner.
Mmmhmm. You said a mouthful there, mister!
Of the likelier nominees, I like The Tragedy of Macbeth the best. Very much a design aesthetic I'm drawn to. I don't mind Dune winning. It's just not my favorite.
I'm pulling for Candyman as a longshot to make it in the discussion in any possible category. This would be a good place to recognize it. So would score (or Adapted Screenplay, but we all know that's not really going to happen). The film was a big enough hit to be remembered at this point and that's the hurdle most traditional horror films stumble over.
My vote would go to MACBETH, but it needs to be nominated first. It would be a rebuke of the 'most not best' mentality of most voters.
My vote would go to MACBETH, but it needs to be nominated first. It would be a rebuke of the 'most not best' mentality of most voters.