Handicapping the Best Costume Oscar
The Academy Awards are always a bit baffling in their nomination choices— who gets chosen, who gets overlooked— but the Best Costume category is a lot easier to predict. Historical dramas, unless they’ve really bollixed things up (think of the laughable attempts at historical garb in King Arthur or Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), will invariably fill the nomination list.
This year we have Australia, a World War II epic; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, in which Brad Pitt lives backwards from the early 20th century to the present day; The Duchess, set in 18th century England—I think everyone would have been shocked if this one hadn’t been nominated—Revolutionary Road, set in the 1950s; and…
…Milk. Okay, apparently the 1970s are now long ago enough that they qualify for a historical costume drama. I feel old. Then again, looking back at the 1970s, much of the fashion was as outlandish in its own way as panniers and three-foot powdered wigs, so I suppose it’s really not that much of a stretch.
Shamefully overlooked were any of the year’s many science fiction, fantasy, and comic-book related movies. In particular, it is shocking that Hellboy II: The Golden Army did not get a Best Costume nomination for its visual feast of elves, trolls, demons, and fish-creatures. The Makeup nomination hardly seems adequate. But then, this is nothing new; none of the Star Wars prequels received so much as a nomination for their incredibly detailed and inventive costumes.
Which leads to an interesting question: why does the Academy tend to nominate and honor movies whose costumes are based on history over movies whose costumes are entirely invented—created (pardon the expression) out of whole cloth, rather than copied from the history books? There are exceptions, of course; The Fellowship of the Ring was nominated, and The Return of the King was not only nominated but actually took home the award. Still, one would think that the creativity and imagination that goes into designing an original fantasy or science fiction costume would trump historical recreation. (Though having done both I can say that to do either one well requires a fair amount of skill.)
To answer this, let’s take a look at each of the 2009 nominees. (more…)
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