Oscar Volley: Will it be Period Perfection or Fantastical Visions as the winner of "Best Costume Design"?
Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 1:00PM Team Experience is discussing the various Oscar categories. Here's Chris James and Juan Carlos Ojano discussing Costume Design.
CARLOS: Hi, Chris! I would like to confess that I am terrified to talk about this category. For the last few years, I have just made my picks without actually articulating specific reasons. Maybe I don't have the necessary vocabulary or real-life knowledge in costuming or maybe because I'm still working on veering away from my preconceived notion of "Best" as "Most" or "Prettiest". But that fear also makes this exciting, and to do this with you - huzzah!
All right. Let's get down to business. What do we have here? Two Best Picture nominees, two Best Picture-adjacent films, and a lone nominee from a favourite designer in this category. In the expanded ballot era, a time where a lot of the categories have gone (or in some cases, defaulted) to Best Picture nominees alone, this category has demonstrated a level of independence. Out of the past thirteen winners, seven were non-Best Picture nominees (that's 54%, more than half!). So if you're predicting the winner, stats aren't necessarily helpful...