Oscar Volley: It’s Whimsy vs History in Production Design

Team Experience is discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Nick and Cláudio to talk Production Design...

BARBIE sails to a sure nomination, but can it win?

CLÁUDIO: Last year, the trenches took gold, but what will even be nominated this season? The gloomy days of WWI behind us, Barbie shines a pink promise on the plastic horizon, with Killers of the Flower Moon and Oppenheimer providing some period seriousness. Maybe it'll be Wonka or Poor Things, colorful lunacy with a candied twist. There are other musicals to contend with, more biopics than your mind can process, sci-fi, diorama-land, and even a detour into mid-00s opulence. Yes, this is the Best Production Design race, where anything is possible until it isn't. May the odds be ever in your favor…

So, dear Nick, how are you feeling about the state of the race and should we already start lamenting another Adam Stockhausen snub for Asteroid City?

NICK: I feel pretty excited about this race, having seen maybe half of the movies hovering around for contention. If Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon are our top choices, I’ll be happy with either outcome, and Oppenheimer would be a fine choice too. Ask me about Poor Things and Wonka again at the end of the month.

The team of Stockhausen and Anderson deliver another delight in ASTEROID CITY.
It’s never too late to mourn for Asteroid City, and for the Production Design branch’s bizarre reluctance towards nominating Wes Anderson films. I won’t feel too bad for Stockhausen since he already has an Oscar, and because I’d like to save wailing on behalf of our likely-unrecognized faves for later in this piece. It’s exciting how many potential frontrunners have never won an Oscar, and as a gal who loves spreading the wealth, I’d be rooting for Jack Fisk, Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, Nathan Crowley, and never-nommed Ruth de Jong over Stockhausen on principle even if their work wasn’t so goddamn spectacular. Barbie’s my pick of the likely nominees, but where do you stand on this crop? 

CLÁUDIO: You're right that this season's full of Oscarless favorites who've battled for the prize many times before. Well, or they would have if AMPAS didn't suffer from some sort of allergy to Mr. Sissy Spacek's excellence and De Jong's brilliant work for Jordan Peele. I can't stop thinking about the possibility of Barbie's Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer finally nabbing the Oscar they so richly deserved for Anna Karenina in 2012, or the awful fate that could befall Nathan Crowley. The British production designer has worked with Christopher Nolan since Insomnia, designing every one of his movies. That was until this year when he worked on Wonka instead of Oppenheimer. Imagine both titles are nominated and a seventh-time nominated Crowley loses to the WWII film. Just for that, they should have cameras capturing the nominees' reactions as they do in the acting categories.

Not to mention that Oppenheimer feels like the least exciting of potential nominees. This is a fine crop of possibilities, but the way Hoyte van Hoytema frames the sets of Los Alamos and all other military facilities, domestic spaces, and the whole shebang, robs them of specificity and detail. They're so often blurred on the edges of shots, spatial awareness sacrificed in the name of close-ups and short focal distances. Then again, should we consider the design work on its own, detached from its presentation on screen, or as a piece of the puzzle, one more gear in the clockwork mechanism of moviemaking?

Will OPPENHEIMER be the first Nolan film to win this Oscar?

NICK: You’re right that the cinematography doesn’t showcase the sets as well as it could, but if we can disentangle the sets from how they’re presented (I think we can, and should), I appreciate how much detail De Jong’s production design gives to spaces we don’t spend a great deal of time with. There’s plenty of differentiating information to the various labs and testing grounds, the half-built and fully-constructed homes of Los Alamos, academic and government spaces. I enjoyed studying the degrees of lived-in wear and tear or barely-finished sheen of the environments. It’s not my favorite either, but it’s strong craftsmanship from the kind of film that Oscar has happily recognized for much less.

Oppenheimer boasts decades of designs across several countries, which could give it a “Most Sets” advantage if not for Barbie’s fluorescent pinks or all of the insanity going on in Poor Things. Killers of the Flower Moon stays largely focused on one single slice of America, yet Fisk’s work encompasses a corner of the US with several cultural factions, some of which we haven’t on the big screen quite like this. If Oppenheimer’s your least exciting possibility, who’s your favoritest?

CLÁUDIO: To no one's surprise, I'm excited by the design achievements that fervently go against any kind of realism. Barbie is the obvious choice for all its toy-like stylings, but what most impresses me about Greenwood's work is the materiality she finds in every texture and maladapted prop. I adore that the Mattel offices somehow seem faker than Barbieland, while the transition between worlds may be my favorite individual sets of the year. Well, at least in the realm of Oscar possibility. The only real competition for that title is Poor Things' Parisian brothel, a mad marvel of lurid theatrics with grand windows assembled like giant penises. If Beau Is Afraid's father phallus can't be nominated, I'll settle for cock and balls window works.

POOR THINGS dreams of a Lisbon that never was, not quite.
Also, as someone who loves to wander around beautiful Lisbon, it was a treat to watch Lanthimos and company re-imagining the city. Bella Baxter's first stop in her European tour is Portugal's capital like you've never seen it before, architecture seen through the looking glass, distorted and refracted in kooky kaleidoscope. It's always so interesting to consider a familiar place de-familiarized by movie magic. Have you had any such experience this year? 

NICK: I too love Barbie’s sets, for all the reasons you listed about Barbieland’s cornucopia of plastic fantasies and the sad, undecorated grayscale of the corporate offices. My favorite tiny detail in the real world is the brief cutaway to a CIA agent whose work station has so much more personality than the cubicle of the Mattel grunt receiving the call. I can’t even pick a favorite detail from Barbieland - maybe the plastic water on the beach? It’s a tremendously physical feat, and I’m very glad that its early release compared to so many contenders hasn’t dimmed its light or let folks take its ingenuity for granted. 

To bring back some already-mentioned titles, I loved the exaggerated visions of America in Asteroid City and Beau is Afraid. The former balances theatrical flatness and expansive red-dust emptiness, expanding the lines and palettes of those familiar with the Stockhausen-Anderson repertoire into vivid new directions. Meanwhile, the latter utilizes a Kaufman-y mordant comedy and horrific excess, blurring the line between the protagonist’s neuroses and the world’s unraveling. My actual favorite production design might be an example of dramatizing a culture I’m intimately familiar with. Showing Up’s collegiate arts enclave wouldn’t feel so real without all of the artworks we see, the unspoken worlds conveyed about its characters through medium, color, time spent, even the size of their workspaces and gallery presentations. The various contributing artists should’ve won the technical grand prize at Cannes.

Reichardt's SHOWING UP was robbed at Cannes!

Since I’ve already led us to personal favorites territory, do you want to name some FYC picks before predicting lineups and shouting out some long shots?

CLÁUDIO: Regarding achievements with no chances of making it into the ballot, I must shout out The Mother of All Lies. Morocco's official submission is a documentary exercise that recalls the cinema of Rithy Panh, using models and miniatures to resurrect a family and a country's troubled history. Beyond the construction on the technical level, there's such wondrous creativity, even in the way the sets weaponize their own limitations, of resources and sometimes craft. Cannes darlings Fallen Leaves and La Chimera are also brilliant, if more understated.

Some other favorites may still score with the guilds, if not necessarily with the Academy. I've written plenty about The Zone of Interest's set design, a treaty on the architecture of evil rather than its Arendt-ian banality. Then, there's a pulpier sort of nightmare in A Haunting in Venice, where a haunted forest is brought inside through aged frescos. The Last Voyage of the Demeter is another horror stand-out, conveying the cavernous interiors of a 19th-century ship in dereliction. Master Gardener has that god-tier wallpaper game, but there's more to love about it, especially if one considers the manicured gardens as set design. Concrete Utopia and the latest Hunger Games movie might snag some votes in sci-fi-inclined ballots, while Priscilla's stripped-down Graceland is perfect for a film that's so much about emptiness.

THE ZONE OF INTEREST would be an inspired Best production Design nominee.

NICK: Ohhhh, those are fantastic calls. I’ll also plug Godzilla Minus One, which does an incredible job of depicting Japan’s attempts to rebuild from the rubble of WWII. Unexpectedly evocative work that deserves to be recognized by sci-fi guilds.

CLÁUDIO: But let's talk punditry. What's your predicted lineup?

NICK: I think this is Barbie’s prize to lose. But that’s predicting winners, not nominees, though I’m gonna be very basic with my guesses. My predicted five are:

BARBIE
THE COLOR PURPLE
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
OPPENHEIMER
POOR THINGS

We haven’t mentioned The Color Purple so far, but I think it could show up in several craft categories if it’s the hit some folks think it will be. It might fall victim to the poor lighting showcase you called out Oppenheimer for being, but musicals do well in this category, so I’m putting a pin in it as a fun guess, and to not replicate Nathaniel’s current roster of predictions. I’d love to see Asteroid City claim a spot here, though as you said at the top, it’s easier to be cynical about that film than predict it. I absolutely think Wonka could happen, though I can’t make myself enthused about it, and perhaps Ferrari’s hotrod motor vehicles could zoom into contention. Either way, it looks like the median quality of this category is going to be very high this year, and as of right now I see very little room for complaints. How about you, Cláudio? Which way do your winds blow?

This branch loves musicals. Good news for THE COLOR PURPLE.

CLÁUDIO: I actually believe Poor Things might pull this off and win it all. It feels like it's between that and Barbie, though much can change from now to Oscar night. Beyond those two near locks, it's harder to be sure about anything. So, my productions would be:

POOR THINGS
BARBIE
OPPENHEIMER
WONKA
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON

This branch loves Nolan's movies more than any other in the Academy, having nominated all but one of his movies since The Prestige. Even the spartan wartime landscapes of Dunkirk and Tenet's stream-lined modernism got in, besting shower contenders. However, this can also be the branch loving Crowley rather than his director, hence why I think Wonka is also a good bet. It'd be the traditional non-Best Picture nominee like last year's Babylon. 

I'm most undecided about Killers of the Flower Man. On the one hand, the AMPAS design branch has been very generous to Western designs as of late. Think about The Revenant, News of the World, and The Power of the Dog. On the other hand, this prediction feels too neat and unsurprising when they often throw one or two into the mix. The Color Purple has the musical advantage, as you said, and I keep fearing a groundswell of Maestro love might result in a bunch of coattail nods. The same could happen with The Holdovers' 70s nostalgia and holiday coziness. At the very least, it'll play better as a screener than some other contenders. And then there's The Zone of Interest, which could pull one of those The Father-Parasite-style nominations for an aesthetically austere critical champion.

Am I overthinking this? I feel like I'm overthinking this.

How many nominations can KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON secure?

NICK: I agree about our predictions seeming very safe from here. Honestly, I’d have guessed Oppenheimer would be the one to drop out first for the reasons you mentioned about it not being a stellar production design showcase, but I hadn’t thought about Nolan’s films being a consistent presence in this category. The Irishman getting nominated makes me feel confident Killers of the Flower Moon will show up. I hadn’t even considered The Holdovers here, and though I’m not sure its appeal requires it to make a huge play here, the Academy does go for Payne’s films in the craft categories. I’m not going to predict it, but if it does get nominated I’m going to blame you, Cláudio Alves.

The Zone of Interest would be a very cool choice, but I think it’ll need a lot of heat built up to pull it off. Parasite and The Father ended up winning multiple Oscars without winning in this category despite their sets being a key reason for their success. As early as it is in Catherine O’Hara’s awards season, I don’t get the sense from folks who’ve been tracking The Zone of Interest that it’s bursting out the gate like it might need to.

Do you have any last notes about this category before we sign off? And, as a sidenote: Do we think this is going to be another year where four films get 10+ Oscar nominations? I’m thinking Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, and Poor Things. Did we discuss this? Ray Lewis, did you incept this idea into me?

If THE HOLDOVERS gets in, blame the sad Christmas tree.

CLÁUDIO: Don't blame me if The Holdovers gets nominated! Then again, if it happens, as it did with Judi Dench in Belfast, I'll start to think there's a curse set upon the Oscar Volleys whenever we join forces.

My final thought is that, though Ray Lewis is probably right, I hope he isn't. To be headed into another year with that many double-digit nomination bounties is to see the idea of "spreading the wealth" wither away and die, leaving countless films unrewarded. So, c'mon, Academy, be a little bit wild. Let's nominate Godzilla Minus One for Production Design, for Nick's sake, if nothing else. 

NICK: Come on, Academy! Who can resist this cute widdle face?

RELATED READING:

• Other Oscar Volleys – Makeup & Editing
• Nathaniel’s Oscar Charts
• Team Experience Predictions – From Picture to Screenplay

Comments

[thevoid99]

I would like to add Priscilla in terms of the interior recreations of Graceland.

[Frank Zappa]

Saltburn, Across the Spider-Verse…

[ScottC]

This looks like Barbie's to lose (although if Poor Things looks as great as the trailer ...) but I wish Asteroid City and Saltburn were in the mix, at least for nominations. And I'm not sure I'm quite onboard with what you all are saying about Priscilla - but if there were 10 nominees, absolutely.