We have a great track record here, and that’s because we always remind ourselves that Oscar has a period fetish. But we’re going to break with tradition by not rallying behind first-time nominee Linda Muir’s moodily ostentatious garbs for Nosferatu, even though it’s the only period film in the category. And if we’re feeling nervous, it’s because it’s easy to see the rare victories by genre films in this category, most recently Mad Max: Fury Road and the two Black Panther movies, as being made possible by two period films splitting votes.
But if you’ve seen even one over-lit minute of Jon M. Chu’s Wicked, it’s impossible to not have been floored by Paul Tazewell’s astonishingly elegant and expansive costuming, which pulls influence from so many different eras of fashion that the film at times recalls, well, a period film. Tazewll, a Tony and Emmy winner who was nominated before in this category for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, designed over 1000 costumes for Wicked, and the way they swing from the fabulously couture to the downright bananas, especially during crowd scenes, is the main reason to, well, watch more than one over-lit minute of the film.
Will Win: Wicked
Could Win: Nosferatu
Should Win: Wicked
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