Every day until the Oscars ceremony we’ll be highlighting a different category or movie here on the LAMB! Here’s a link to all the posts written so far .

Today, Rob of MovieRob (ME!!!) is here to look at the Best Costume Design Category.

Best Costume Design

As many of you who know me already are aware, I love movie challenges and constantly find new and exciting ways to challenge myself when it comes to the world of movies. So, when nobody was really interested in doing this category, I hesitated only for a few moments before I decided to give it a try. I will preface all this with the fact that I know absolutely nothing about this subject but decided to give it a try anyway.

In my research about this category, I found out that it was created in 1948 and originally was split into two separate categories – one for Black and white films and one for Color.

Historically, the black and white category winners were usually films that take place in the present and most of the winners in the color category were films that take place in the past.

In 1967, they merged the two categories and in the 51 years of Oscar winners since then only 3 of the winners were films taking place in the present that weren’t sci-fi or fantasy films all the rest take place in the past.

This year there are 5 films nominated and they all do amazing jobs.

Four of them take place in the past with one taking place in the present albeit a futuristic present filled with lots of superheros.

It’s note worthy that this is the only (non-acting) category which features 5 female nominees

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – Mary Zophres

The Coen Brothers know how to make a film look realistic no matter what era it takes place in and together with the help of nominee Mary Zophres they manage to give us a film filled with lots of characters in various stages of the Old West who are look distinctly unique for the various settings of this film especially when it comes to looking very worn in and dirty which is what the Old West always invokes because of the dust and sand that is spread all around. This is Mary Zophres’ third nomination and she is still seeking that very first win, will it be this year?

Black Panther – Ruth E. Carter

Ruth E. Carter is able to give the people of Wakanda a look that is quite unique despite the pseudo contemporary basis of the story. Since it’s a sci-fi adventure, they are able to get around the Oscar bias for pure contemporary and the mix of African garb with modern and futuristic clothing works quite well to give the Wakandan a look of their own. Like Mary Zophres, Ruth E. Carter was given her 3rd Oscar nomination this year for her work, the question remains tho whether she will be able to take home a new Golden trophy for this work, come Oscar night.

The Favourite – Sandy Powell

Sandy Powell has been nominated 14 times in this category over the years and has so far won 3 times (can she make it 4?). She is obviously an expert as creating clothing especially for the films she works on and is currently known as being one of the best in the business. This is her first of two nominees this year and she makes the Royals all look very well and realistic in the various forms of settings throughout this film. The attention to detail is quite amazing and from what I’ve heard this film is currently the frontrunner in this category.

Mary Poppins Returns- Sandy Powell

This is actually the only film of the 5 nominees that I have yet to see, but based solely on clips and trailers, it is clear that they do a wonderful job recreating and also updating the kind of wardrobe seen in the 1964 classic film that this one is a continuation of. With Powell at the helm of this costume crew, it’s no wonder that it all look so supercalifragalistically amazing the whole way through. I personally think that the costumes here are done the very best of the 5 nominees, but we’ll have to see what the voters think.

Mary Queen of Scots – Alexandra Byrne

This is Alexandra Byrne’s 5th nomination which includes 1 win for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). She does an amazing job showing the various gowns worn by both the Scottish and British royalty during the time of this film and she does a nice job keeping the colors and styles different for both houses of royalty so it’s easy to distinguish between the two.

Tags: Black Panther, Mary Poppins Returns, Mary Queen of Scots, MovieRob, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, The Favourite