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On Tuesday, "W.E." won the period prize from the Costume Design Guild at their 14th annual awards. It edged out three of the other Oscar nominees for Best Costume Design -- "The Artist," "Jane Eyre" and "Hugo." The fifth contender is another period picture, "Anonymous," and like "Jane Eyre" and "W.E." this category marks its only Oscar recognition.
In 2005, "W.E." designer Arianne Phillips contended at the Oscars for fashioning the country and western garb in "Walk the Line." In her new film, she created costumes for both a relatively contemporary setting as well as 1930s high society.
"Hugo" marks the tenth bid for Sandy Powell, who has now been nominated for three consecutive years. She has won three times, most recently in 2009 for "The Young Victoria" with earlier victories for "Shakespeare in Love" (1998) and "The Aviator" (2004). Her costumes for "Hugo" range from that worn by the denizens of a 1930s Paris train station to those used by George Melies in his early films.
Michael O'Connor ("Jane Eyre") won his only previous Oscar race for his designs for "The Duchess" in 2008. This adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's Gothic novel requried costumes for both the wealthy and the working class and his attention to detail was much praised.
"Hugo" bested one of its Oscar rivals for Best Art Direction, "The Artist," when it won the Period Film prize at the 16th annual Art Directors Guild Awards. Another Oscar nominee, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," claimed the Fantasy Film award. The other two Oscar nominees -- "Midnight in Paris" and "War Horse" -- failed to contend at these kudos which signals almost certain disappointment for them at the Academy Awards. In the first 15 years of these kudos, the eventual Oscar champ has always been found among the nominees in the various categories.
Dante Ferretti is nominated for the ninth time in this category for his work on "Hugo." All but one of those bids was shared with his wife set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo. They won for "The Aviator" (2004) and "Sweeney Todd" (2007). Their expert recreations of both early French cinema and 1930s Paris make them the frontrunners.
This the fourth nomination for Stuart Craig as the production designer for the "Harry Potter" films. He was previously nominated for "Sorcerer's Stone," "Goblet of Fire," and "Deathly Hallows, Part 1." He won three of his other six bids: "Gandhi" (1982); "Dangerous Liaisons" (1988); and "The English Patient" (1996). He shared that last win with set decorator Stephenie McMillan who has worked with him on all the "Potter" pictures.
Doing the art direction for "The Artist" brought Laurence Bennett his first Oscar nomination and a second for set decorator Robert Gould. Their recreation of 1920s Hollywood had to be shot in black-and-white, adding to their achievement. With a Best Picture win looking likely, could they be part of a sweep?
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On Tuesday, "W.E." won the period prize from the Costume Design Guild at their 14th annual awards while the final "Harry Potter" picture took the fantasy genre and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" claimed the contemporary category.
"W.E" contends for the Oscar against three of the other period pictures in the running at the CDG -- "The Artist," "Jane Eyre" and "Hugo" -- along with "Anonymous." The final CDG nominee, "The Help," was snubbed by the academy.
"Hugo" costumer Sandy Powell already has three Oscars ("Shakespeare in Love," "The Aviator" and "The Young Victoria") while Arianne Phillips ("W.E.") is a one-time nominee ("Walk the Line").
"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" edged out "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," "Red Riding Hood," "Thor" and "X Men: First Class." Jany Temime won for the final film in the franchise; she also contended for the fifth installment ("Order of the Phoenix"). Her predecessor, Judianna Makovsky, won for the first film ("Sorcerer's Stone").
Trish Summerville edged out the other contemporary contenders: "Bridesmaids," "The Descendants," "Drive" and "Melancholia."
Last year, two of the three CDG period nominees -- "The King's Speech" and "True Grit" -- reaped Oscar bids. In 2009, three of the CDG choices for period film costumes made the final five at the Oscars while in both 2008 and 2007 four made the cut.
By naming only three period pictures last year, the CDG left the Oscar field open and two of its fantasy nominees -- "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Tempest" -- made the grade with the Academy. Indeed, "Alice in Wonderland" won awards from both groups, marking the seventh time in the 13-year history of the the CDG that a champ of theirs prevailed at the Oscars.
Looking back
at Billy Crystal's best Oscar moments: "The funnyman has hosted eight (count 'em, eight!) previous shows and came to the rescue this year when producer Brett Ratner self-immolated and host Eddie Murphy subsequently bailed out. By now, you know his style -- hack, adorable, dadish -- but let's take a few minutes to honor the Academy's consummate emcee. From Gollum impersonations to 'Titanic' digs, above are Crystal's best Oscar hosting moments ever." MOVIEFONE
New twist in Bret Michaels lawsuit against the Tony Awards: "... 'defendants CBS Broadcasting, Inc., Tony Awards Productions, White Cherry Entertainment, Inc. and others involved in producing the 2009 Tony Awards, where Rock Star Bret Michaels sustained life-threatening head injuries, filed a Third Party Complaint in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against third-party Rock of Ages Broadway LLC' ... 'This is a desperate act. The producers of the Tony Awards and their co-defendants cannot credibly deny that they almost killed Bret while he was performing with the cast of "Rock of Ages," so instead they are trying to point the finger elsewhere,' said Alex Weingarten, managing partner of Weingarten Brown LLP, counsel for Bret Michaels." BROADWAY WORLD
Oscar-nominee
Michael O'Connor discusses his costumes for "Jane Eyre": "It’s a pivotal, intimate moment in the film when Jane (Mia Wasikowska) wakes a sleeping Rochester to save him from the flames in his bedroom. 'I think there was talk of [Michael Fassbender] doing the scene in the nude. But we didn’t know about "Shame," at the time,' O'Connor laughs. 'I imagine he could have been persuaded.'" EW.COM
Kenneth Branagh discusses being inspired by Laurence Olivier: "He was unquestionably the dominant figure in the British acting scene when I started acting. He was the epitome of this combination of a classical actor, a great film star and a national institution. The first time I ever encountered Olivier though was seeing Peter Sellers on TV doing an impression of his piping strangulated tenor. I remember impersonating Sellers impersonating Olivier the next day in the school playground. One was aware even then of what a complete and all-pervasive impact Olivier had on all elements of the profession." DEADLINE
Michael Douglas ad
ded to the list of Oscar presenters: "Douglas won an Oscar for his lead performance in 'Wall Street' (1987) and a Best Picture award as a producer of 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest' (1975). His film credits include 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,' 'Solitary Man,' 'You, Me and Dupree,' 'Traffic,' 'Wonder Boys,' 'Falling Down,' 'Fatal Attraction' and 'The China Syndrome.'" REUTERS
Richard Rushfield discusses Oscars with our very own Tom O'Neil: "We talk of the Oscar race and marijuana madness this week on the podcast of the downfall of civilization. I talk of the he state of the Oscar race and tales from the Awards trail of tears with Tom O’Neil, editor of Gold Derby, one of the media’s most reknowned Oscar pundits. Hillel Aron stops by to talk about his LA Weekly cover story on the chaos unleashed across Los Angeles wrought by the conflicting medical marijauna regulations." RUSHFIELD BABYLON
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland reaped their first Best Makeup bid for transforming Meryl Streep into Margaret Thatcher at various ages from her forties to her eighties in "The Iron Lady." Four years ago, the makeup artists who turned Marion Cotillard into Edith Piaf for "La Vie en Rose" won this award.
None of the first seven films in the "Harry Potter" merited mention in this category. That does not bode well for the chances of first-time contenders Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin.
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Nominees Glenn Close and Janet McTeer are women passing themselves off as men in "Albert Nobbs." This is the fourth nomination for Matthew Mungle who won with his first bid for "Dracula" in 1992. His colleagues, Martial Corneville and Lynn Johnston, are Oscar rookies.
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes" won visual effects in a visual effects-driven feature motion picture at the 10th annual Visual Effects Society Awards. Seven of the nine winners of this prize went on to claim the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.
Two of its Oscars rival were in that race -- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2," and "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" -- while another, "Hugo," which the supporting visual effects award. The fifth Oscar contender -- "Real Steel" -- was snubbed by the VES.
The motion capture used in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is similar to the technique used in "King Kong" which won this Oscar race in 2005. Andy Serkis played a primate in both films and also appeared in digitally enhanced form in "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Joe Letteri won for two of those three films -- "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King" -- as well as "King Kong" and “Avatar." His co-nominees -- Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon and R. Christopher White -- are all first-timers. This is the only Oscar bid for this summer blockbuster. The last film to win its sole nomination in this race was "Death Becomes Her" in 1992.
"Hugo" is the only Best Picture nominee represented in this category which could give it the edge. Oscar cham Rob Legato ("Titanic") vies for the third time -- his other bid was for "Apollo 13" -- while Ben Grossmann, Alex Henning and Joss Williams are first-time nominees.
On Saturday, "Hugo" won top award from the Cinema Audio Society. While the winner of this award has gone on to claim the Best Sound Mixing Oscar only three times in the past decade, two of those instances were in the last three years. The other Oscar champs had at least been nominated by the CAS.
"Hugo" marks the third nomination for John Midgley and the fifth for Tom Fleischman. Neither has won as of yet.
"Moneyball" was the only other Oscar nominee to contend at the CAS. This is the fourth Oscar bid by Ed Novick, who won this category last year for "Inception," the second for David Giammarco and the first for both Deb Adair and Ron Bochar.
Prior to this, the four nominees for "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" -- Peter J. Devlin, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Gary Summers, and Greg P. Russell -- had amassed 28 Oscar nominations between them. Russell accounts for 14 of those without any wins to date. Summers has won four of his 10 bids ("Terminator 2: Judgement Day," "Jurassic Park," "Titanic" and "Saving Private Ryan")
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At Sunday's Motion Picture Sound Editors awards, "War Horse" won Best Sound Effects and Foley. That prize has proven to be an accurate precursor as to what film prevails for Best Sound Editing at the Oscars.
"War Horse" soundman Gary Rydstrom won seven of his previous 15 bids: "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (Sound and Sound Editing), "Jurassic Park" (Sound and Sound Editing), "Titanic" (Sound) and "Saving Private Ryan" (Sound and Sound Editing). His co-nominee Richard Hymns won three of his seven previous races: "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (Sound Editing), "Jurassic Park" (Sound Editing), and "Saving Private Ryan" (Sound Editing).
"Hugo" did not contend in the Sound Effects and Foley race at the MPSE but it did win the Music award. Longtime Martin Scorsese collaborator Philip Stockton reaped his first Oscar bid while Eugene Gearty picked up his second following a nod for "Gangs of New York."
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" earned Ren Klyce his fourth nomination. As with this one, all of his other bids were for David Fincher films: Sound Mixing for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (2008) and "The Social Network" (2010), and Sound Editing for "Fight Club" (1999).
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How will future Oscarologists size up the inevitable victory of 'The Artist" as Best Picture? "I think we're going to look back at this and say, 'This is kind of like when 'Greatest Show on Earth' won," says Village Voice wag Michael Musto in his webcam chat with Gold Derby chief Tom O'Neil. "A palate cleanser. Something you can sit back and enjoy but a work of art? I don't think so …. Despite the title 'The Artist' … and now Harvey Weinstein, the punisher, is going to punish me. Whip me! Beat me! Treat me like Madonna!"
That notorious rascal Musto is wildly playful in this chat while he chides Beyonce and Barbra Streisand for not remaking Oscar's 1937 Best Picture "The Life of Emile Zola" and insists that the Stonewall Riots were sparked by Judy Garland's loss of the Best Actress Oscar to Grace Kelly (never mind the two events were separated by 14 years).
See Musto's and O'Neil Oscar predictions here.
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See predictions of Oscar Experts from Entertainment Weekly and IMDB ranked according to likelihood of winning. Compare to predictions of Gold Derby Editors and our Users in these charts (click "More" within each category box to see extended data). Review the contenders, enter your predictions here.
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Experts | Editors | Users | Total | |||||
 | The Artist |
11/10
|
1/1
|
19/10
|
6/5
| ||||
 | The Descendants |
9/2
|
13/2
|
11/2
|
11/2
| ||||
 | The Help |
10/1
|
12/1
|
10/1
|
10/1
| ||||
 | Hugo |
14/1
|
10/1
|
20/1
|
14/1
| ||||
 | Midnight in Paris |
20/1
|
16/1
|
20/1
|
20/1
| ||||
 | War Horse |
33/1
|
50/1
|
12/1
|
25/1
| ||||
 | Moneyball |
25/1
|
20/1
|
25/1
|
25/1
| ||||
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Gold Derby pools predictions from our Editors and Users like you to calculate the odds in eight top races. Review the contenders and then enter your predictions here. User with the highest score will win an official Razzie Supporting Patron Membership worth $250 - READ MORE.
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Editors | Users | Total | |||||||
| 1 |  |  | Jack and Jill |
11/10
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3/2
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5/4
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| 2 | |  | Bucky Larson |
11/2
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9/2
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9/2
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| 3 | |  | Breaking Dawn Part 1 |
11/2
|
11/2
|
11/2
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| 4 | |  | Transformers Dark of the Moon |
13/2
|
12/1
|
8/1
| ||||
| 5 | |  | New Years Eve |
20/1
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25/1
|
25/1
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