Who will be nominated for Costume Design?

by Nathaniel R

Shirley Kurata's costumes for "Jobu Tupaki" in EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE are great chaotic fun

Let's tackle each Oscar category while there's still wiggle room for all contenders! Last season Best Costume Design was sewn up (sorry!) unusually early in the year when Jenny Beavan's garbage dress unfurled midway through Cruella (2021) in the summer movie season. From then on it was everyone versus Cruella and Beavan came out on top for the third time in her delicious career. The costumes of 2022 haven't really had one showstopping gown to end everyone else's Oscar dreams so it's anyone's guess at this point.

Let's discuss 8 films we think are major threats for those 5 nomination slots and why. It seems natural to start with two films where fashion is a co-lead of sorts...

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Oscar Race: Best Costume Design

We aren't going to find out what the Costume Designer's Guild thinks of this past year in film until March 4th, literally the day before Oscar nomination ballots go out. That gives us two weeks still to believe that all things are possible still in this category, though obviously the season to date will have an effect on the outcome. Here are what we think are the top ten contenders in descending order of probability (though this ranking should not be seen as a meritocracy but merely punditry).

PREDICTIONS

the only lock?

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Phantom Thread: When bad fashion is good costume design

by Cláudio Alves

There are many ways to talk about Phantom Thread. My favorite Paul Thomas Anderson production is, among other things, one of the best films about romantic love I've ever seen, looking at the way that loving another person is to willingly become vulnerable to them. To love is, in essence, to open ourselves up to the possibility of mutually assured destruction. The picture is also a canny dissection of the muse/artist relationship, one that illuminates matters of obsession, dynamics between the sexes, the luxuriant pleasure of touching silk, and gazing upon that which is beautiful. It's all that and much more, a multifaceted jewel of cinema about which I could write endless rhapsodies of passionate praise.

Still, for this piece, let's look at the aspect of the movie that earned one of its makers an Oscar (and a jet ski). I invite you all to peruse the costumes Mark Bridges created for Phantom Thread, a film which proves that lackluster fashion can be masterful costume design…

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Interview: Joker's Costume Designer Mark Bridges

by Nathaniel R

Mark Bridges with Joker costumes

Mark Bridges film career began, as so many have, rather inauspicously. His debut was a now forgotten horror film called Waxwork II: Lost in Time (1992) but there's no keeping talent like his down... though it never hurts to attach yourself straight away to a future god-level auteur like Paul Thomas Anderson. Bridges was on board for Anderson's feature debut Hard Eight (1996) and the celebrated auteur wisely never let go of him thereafter. Inbetween Anderson films (and on them in point of fact) Bridges established himself as a world class costume designer of tremendous versatility, with a gift for not just memorable clothing but character-building.

His latest film, Joker, became his most widely viewed work and then an Academy favourite. We had a chance to talk to the two-time Oscar winner (Phantom Thread, The Artist) this past week about his design process, his favourites from his own filmography, and why he loves his job so much...

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Singular Style: Laura Dern in "Marriage Story"

by Cláudio Alves

Some films have overtly brilliant costume design with sprawling wardrobes that call attention to their magnificence at every turn. Others shine in less showy ways, sometimes withholding their potential for sartorial spectacle until the right moment. A stylish coat can alter the way we look at a character. A bold pop of color can transform a scene's emotional tonalities. A singular stylistic choice can make all the difference.

Marriage Story is a good example of this sort of costume design. Mark Bridges isn't unfamiliar with epic feats of costumery but he knows when to hold back and sacrifice aesthetic splendor for the sake of character building. When it comes to Laura Dern's Nora, a savvy L.A. lawyer, his work gets a bit showier. This is a woman who knows her looks can be a weapon, even in a world of grumpy judges and boring office meetings. It's only sensible that her costumes are more attention-grabbing than the other characters' outfits…

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