Oscar Volley: Best Makeup is the Battle of the Biopics

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Nathaniel and Cláudio to discuss Makeup & Hairstyling...

At the moment, MAESTRO looks like our undisputed frontrunner.

NATHANIEL: Dearest Cláudio, it falls on you and I to kick off this year's pre-nomination Oscar volleys. Best Makeup and Hairstyling is up first. So please picture me in heavy old age makeup with some crazy wig atop my bald head. Also, I have green skin (I'm covering as many films as possible in my look). The dark circles under my eyes are not a makeup effect in honor of Lily Gladstone's suffering Mollie Burkhardt -- that's unfortunately just my face! I'm doing too much in my look because like many other craft categories, Makeup is often a race for "Most" rather than "Best"; when we get phenomenal winners it's usually because they are accidentally both of those things at once! I always wish the "Hairstyling" part would get more attention since that would complicate predictions. 

I want to start with an unexpected question before we get to things we're rooting for (however unlikely) and actual predictions…

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Is "Elvis" going to win the Makeup and Hair Oscar?

by Nathaniel R

Austin & Elvis. Image via YouTube comparison

The Makeup and Hair Stylist Guild (MUAHS) gives out prizes in multiple categories and this weekend at their ceremony three Oscar-nominated films in the Makeup category emerged as winners: Black Panther Wakanda Forever, The Whale, and Elvis.

 Only one of them can win at the Oscars. So which might it be? The last five Oscar winners  Darkest Hour, Vice, Bombshell, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and The Eyes of Tammy Faye only have have one thing in common: they all featured at least one famous actor, sometimes multiple famous actors, remade to look like another famous person via prosthetics. This bodes well for Elvis but it's not over till it's over and it has at least one formidable competitor, probably two. The MUAHS awards ceremony and complete list of winners is after the jump...

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Team Experience Predictions - Round 3: Oscar Shortlists

We're polling Team Film Experience on where the Oscar race stands. This week, Best Picture and the Oscar shortlisted categories.

Both Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and All Quiet on the Western Front received major boosts from the Oscar shortlists.

The Oscars announced the shortlists for ten categories on Wednesday, December 21st. Both Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and All Quiet on the Western Front dominated the mentions, appearing in five categories each. How does this affect the Oscar race? Our team of writers updated their predictions in Best Picture and seven of the shortlisted categories (minus the shorts for now). Click for our predictions after the jump...

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The 95th Oscars Shortlists Are Here!

by Cláudio Alves

"All Quiet on the Western Front" | © Netflix

Like in the last few seasons, the Academy has announced shortlists in 10 Oscar categories – Documentary Feature, International Film, Original Score, Song, Sound, Visual Effects, and the three Shorts races. As always, there are surprises along with expected honors and the domination of certain frontrunners. One imagines this is an especially sweet batch of finalists for fans of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and All Quiet on the Western Front, who rule over all other contenders with mentions in five different categories. Not far behind, we find Avatar: The Way of Water with four categories.

Expect more commentary at a later time, but for now, let's look over the complete lists and fire off some instant reactions…

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Oscar Volley: Best Makeup... or is it "Best Prosthetics"?

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Nathaniel and Elisa to discuss Makeup... 

Colin Farrell and... Colin Farrell?

NATHANIEL: Elisa, let's start with a question: Do you think this category should be split into two: Best Makeup Effects AND Best Makeup and Hairstyling? As it stands now, the latter never gets a fair shake. If you do incredible things with glamour and character design but don't offer anything in the prosthetic department, chances are slim to none that you'll be nominated!

For example I think it's pretty clear that Elvis, The Batman, and The Whale will be competitive primarily because they each bury one key character in prosthetics until they're almost unrecognizable. But why? It always feels a bit like showing off. Why hire a famous actor to play a role if you don't actually want their famous face? This bugs me most in the case of The Batman but it might be because I relish looking at Colin Farrell's face... and if you're going to deny me that, don't promise me Colin 'Feckin' Farrell...

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