Simon's Oscar Preview: Art & Design

This week, the Academy Awards are taking over my blog. From today until Friday, I'll be running through all the nominees, handicapping the races and adding my own opinions. I've done my very best to watch every single thing nominated this year and there are only a few that have eluded me. Those eight films will be marked accordingly.

This week's schedule:
Monday - Art & Design, Music
Tuesday - Technical Achievements
Wednesday - Short Films, Special Feature Films
Thursday - Writing & Directing, Acting
Friday - Best Picture

ART DIRECTION
Nominees: Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Inception, The King's Speech, True Grit

Who Will Win: The King's Speech
Who Should Win: Alice in Wonderland

Now, I'm no huge fan of Alice in Wonderland, but the visual imagination on display in that movie is quite fantastic. The film is nicely united by a zany, surreal aesthetic, a necessary element for any Alice story. That said, I fully expect The King's Speech to take the award, thanks to fantastic set design and that loving attention you get in all good period pieces.

COSTUME DESIGN
Nominees: Alice in Wonderland, I Am Love, The King's Speech, The Tempest (have not seen), True Grit

Who Will Win: The Tempest
Who Should Win: The Tempest

Bold predictions for a movie I haven't seen, I know, but judging from the trailers alone, I can't imagine the rest of the films competing with the elaborate costumes in The Tempest. The Caliban outfit particularly jumped out at me. None of the other films do anything special enough with clothes to warrant consideration.

MAKEUP
Nominees: Barney's Version (have not seen), The Way Back, The Wolfman

Who Will Win: The Wolfman
Who Should Win: The Way Back

What an odd category. With only three nominees, this one would be a bit of a crap shoot if there's wasn't one movie that exists solely to display hideous wolf-man hybrids through makeup. Of course, the great irony here is that the titular Wolfmen (spoiler alert: there's more than one) are overwhelmingly CGI, making the makeup a minor element of the overall film. Therefore, my personal vote goes to The Way Back's hideously worn and malnourished prisoners. For the record, I have no idea why Barney's Version is nominated here at all.