Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Oscar Predictions: Best Production Design

It's time again for the Oscars. It's been a long as Awards season as always. Guilds, Globes, BAFTAs, and critics have all made their picks  and I'm here to figure out what it all means. Yes, it's time for my multi-part Oscar predictions.
I'm going to go through each category, tell you who has been nominated and won for what, give a context for what that means, and order the nominees from most to least likely to win on Oscar night. That doesn't mean I'll be right, but it does mean I'll be informed. Wish me luck.

Previously:
Best Documentary, Animate, and Live-Action Short
Best Documentary Feature
Best Foreign Film
Best Animated Feature
Best Visual Effects
Best Sound Editing and Sound Mixing

Glossary:
BAFTA Awards - British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards


Now to Production Design, the closest thing to an "I know it when I see it" award. I'm going to base my picks on the BAFTAs yet again and the Art Director's Guild. The guild breaks the award up three ways (Contemporary, Period, and Fantasy) so it's not as "one size fits all" as I'd like, but it's still telling. The past six winners for the Oscar have been nominated by both the guild and BAFTA. The guild is 14 of 14 for at least nominating the winner and 11 of them also won in their guild category. BAFTA is much less helpful, only matching up winners with the Oscars 6 times in the last 20 years.


The Grand Budapest Hotel (Adam Stockhausen; Anna Pinnock)
BAFTA - Production Design - Winner
Art Director's Guild - Period Production Design - Winner
There's no other way I can put it than The Grand Budapest Hotel will win this award. It passes the eye test. It beat out British bias in the BAFTAs. It's the only guild winner nominated for the Oscar. I wouldn't place it as a lock the way J.K. Simmons is, but I feel pretty good about it.

The Imitation Game (Maria Djurkovic; Tatiana Macdonald)
BAFTA - Production Design - Nominee
Art Director's Guild - Period Production Design - Nominee
It's a double nominee. That helps. The Oscars tends to award showiness here, not accuracy. That will hurt this.

Into the Woods (Dennis Gassner; Anna Pinnock)
Art Director's Guild - Fantasy Production Design - Nominee
I don't even know if Into the Woods was eligible for the BAFTA because it sure was ignored by them. The showiness of the movie makes me think it has a chance, albeit a slim one.

Interstellar (Nathan Crowley; Gary Fettis, Paul Healy)
BAFTA - Production Design - Nominee
Art Director's Guild - Fantasy Production Design - Nominee
I don't know. It's really feeling like a winless night for the Christopher Nolan pet project.

Mr. Turner (Suzie Davies; Charlotte Watts)
BAFTA - Production Design - Nominee
If it couldn't get a BAFTA win, an Oscar is out of the question for this British import.

No comments:

Post a Comment