I present a truncated version of my usual in-depth category breakdowns. Here’s everything you can see on screen in the below-the-line crafts.
Cinematography
Nominees
The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Maria
Nosferatu
Only once in the past 19 years has a film not nominated for Best Picture won this award. That was the undeniable Blade Runner: 2049, which apart from being impeccably shot, earned legend of the craft Roger Deakins his first Oscar. And as great and beloved as Ed Lachmann is, the handsome but safe Maria doesn’t quite fit the bill. Meanwhile, Jarin Blaschke’s wonderfully moody work on Nosferatu is the best among these nominees and some of the finest of the year, but that won’t be enough to get it over the finish line.
Paul Guilhaume is here because for a brief moment in time, the Academy was infatuated with Emilia Peréz. That window has closed, though there is some neat camera trickery in the otherwise much-maligned film. For Dune: Part Two, Greig Fraser earned his third career nomination. He previously won this category for Dune in 2021 and previously was nominated in 2016 for the underrated Lion. In another year, he might have a shot, but the Dune sequel is starting to feel like a well-liked also-ran in many of these categories.
That just leaves the front-runner, Lol Crawley, whose work on The Brutalist is appropriately bold and stately. It’s the kind of film where you forget it occasionally features close-ups and interiors, as it is so built on its sweeping vistas and grand scale. The format of the film – shot in the long dormant VistaVision – has even been part of its marketing, for what better description of a film is there than that of its format? BAFTA winner Crawley should win this award in a walk.
Will win: The Brutalist
Should win: Nosferatu
Should have been here: Nickel Boys
Editing
Nominees
Anora
The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
There was a time when an Editing Oscar was an excellent bellwether for a Best Picture win. That has been less the case recently. While the past two years have seen Oppenheimer and Everything Everywhere All at Once pull off the double act, you have to go back to Argo in 2012 for the time before that. I say all that; now, watch me predict the same movie for both awards. It’s more to provide context that whatever happens when Editing is announced Sunday, it may not necessarily mean anything for the big award.
I believe Anora is going to win this award, which would make Sean Baker just the third director in history to win for editing his own film. The previous two were James Cameron for Titanic and Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity, but Cameron won his award as part of a trio, while Cuaron also had a partner. Baker would be the first to have sole credit. It should be noted that both Cameron and Cuaron also won Best Director, which would bode well for prohibitive favorite Baker.
My favorite work of the year here was Conclave, in which Nick Emerson helps Edward Berger turn a paperback potboiler into a work of high art. The rhythm and energy of the pacing lend urgency to the proceedings while preserving the mysteries at the heart of everything. I will note that Conclave won the BAFTA for editing, but its Britishness most likely pushed it over the top with that group.
At nearly four hours long, editor Dávid Jancsó keeps The Brutalist moving, and in seeing it twice, I never once felt the run time. If you believe Emilia Perez has any virtues – and I actually believe it does – Juliette Welfling’s editing is not one of them, though it does remind of the kind of flashy, over-caffeinated work of recent winner Everything Everywhere All at Once. Finally, Myron Kerstein’s work on Wicked is solid and workmanlike, creating a seamless flow between the narrative and the musical numbers.
Will win: Anora
Should win: Conclave
Should have been here: Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Production Design
Nominees
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu
Wicked
One thing the folks running the campaign for Wicked have made sure to put front and center is the practical nature of the film’s execution. These are built sets (lit terribly, but it’s not a cinematography award) on real soundstages. The world of Oz exists, and it’s a fascinating, intricate little world indeed. This is not a film I cared for, but its sets are a wonder to behold. I would expect production designer Nathan Crowley, a seven-time nominee, and set decorator Lee Sandales, a three-time nominee, to win their first award going away.
All due respect to the Nosferatu crew – Robert Eggers and Co. never do anything halfway – but the only real competition here is probably The Brutalist. Of course, Brady Corbet’s film is literally about construction and design. If anything can keep the Wicked crew from flying away with the award, it would be this. But, I wouldn’t bet on it.
Will win: Wicked
Should win: Nosferatu
Should have been here: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Costume Design
Nominees
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Gladiator II
Nosferatu
Wicked
I have written a lot over the years about how contemporary films rarely get nominated, let alone win, the Oscar for Best Costume Design. Period pieces and fantasy rule the day. Interestingly, Conclave is a film set in the present day, but one would be hard pressed to call the papal electorate’s garments “contemporary.” In any event, no need to go over that little prejudice again, for I have discovered another.
By my count, since 1967, when the Academy began handing out a single Best Costume Design award (before it had been split into separate color and black-and-white honors), just four musicals have triumphed in this category – Camelot in 1967, All That Jazz in 1979, and the one-two punch of Moulin Rouge! and Chicago in 2001 and 2002, respectively. Four times in nearly 60 years is a stat I find a little shocking.
That said, I expect Wicked to win this year for a couple reasons. First, the iconography of the costumes is key to recreating the world of Oz. Glinda’s flowing pink gowns. Elphaba’s cape and hat. Second, the sheer volume of costumes crafted for the supporting cast and background actors is overwhelming and awe-inspiring. Extra points, as well, for the novel-accurate silver slippers. Leave ruby red to Dorothy.
A Complete Unknown does a nice job of bringing ’60s New York City back to life, while Gladiator II is the sort of gargantuan effort that often gets cited in this category. That includes the original Gladiator, which won this award in 2000. I will also note the period costumes of Nosferatu are gorgeous and almost certainly accurate to their time period. It’s beautiful work, but the film overall lacks the broad support that might carry it to a win.
Will win: Wicked
Should win: Wicked
Should have been here: The Substance
Makeup and Hairstyling
Nominees
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
The Substance
Wicked
We won’t spend too much time on this category, which feels like the lock of all locks, at least to me. Pierre-Oliver Persin, Stéphanie Guillon, and Marilyne Scarselli’s work on The Substance is undeniable. The film is built around reaching that sequence at the end where it goes off the rails, but everything leading up to it is just as magnificent and impressive. The gradual deformation of Elisabeth Sparkle over the course of the movie is key to believing that what happens at the end is inevitable.
The Academy has never been afraid to reward horror films in this category, including this film’s clearest inspiration, The Fly, which won this award back in 1986. Add to that the fact that this film has the broader stamp of approval of Best Picture and Best Director nominations, and the path to victory seems clear and all but assured.
I will say that while I love the makeup effects of The Substance, my favorite work of the year is the also-nominated A Different Man, a film predicated on the way faces morph and change and what that means for the main character. There is no movie if the prosthetics and makeup work feel off for even one second. It’s a tremendous accomplishment.
Will win: The Substance
Should win: A Different Man
Should have been here: Dune: Part Two
Visual Effects
Nominees
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Dune: Part Two
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked
It is an absolute travesty that none of the films in the new Planet of the Apes series has won this award. It’s truly inconceivable. I don’t even think Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes represents the best of what that franchise can do, and it’s still leaps and bounds above every other nominee. And like those previous three occasions, it’s still going to lose to a more “prestigious” but less accomplished film, at least in this regard.
Ah, but which more prestigious, less accomplished film? As we’ve gone over in previous years, if there’s a Best Picture nominee in the lineup, that’s usually a safe bet. This year, we have two: Dune: Part Two and Wicked. The first Dune won this award in 2021, and I would tend to lean that way again. The image of Timothee Chalamet riding the sandworm is one of 2024’s great iconic moments and represents so much both visually and narratively.
A lot, however, depends on how popular (no pun intended) Wicked ends up being. Is Wicked 2024 this year’s Dune 2021? As in, is this a beloved spectacle film that made a ton of money at the box office, won’t win Best Picture, but could walk away with the biggest awards haul of them all? There’s also the element of how much voters want to attribute the visuals of the film to its effects vs. its considerable production design. The last movie to win both awards? Yeah, Dune.
Quick note on the others: I wrote about the zero-gravity blood maze in Alien: Romulus in my year-in-review series, and it remains one of the truly draw-dropping sequences of the year. And, Better Man – the Robbie Williams monkey movie – is better (pun intended) than it has any right to be. The effects are at their most convincing when kept on a small scale, and it’s a romp of a watch.
Will win: Dune: Part Two
Should win: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Should have been here: Gladiator II
