Precursor: 19th Costume Designers Guild Nominations (2016)

The Costume Designers Guild is a solid precursor in that they nominate fifteen films, which should fill a four-film category. However, it’s very likely that they miss a few since the Academy very rarely pulls out of one and sometimes picks from missing to one of the remaining two.

Of the films I expected to be on this list, Love & Friendship, Allied, Silence, Rules Don’t Apply, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Fences, and Loving, are the only true omissions. Yet, none of the rest of the selections are that surprising. You can take almost all of the period design nominees and put them into Oscar and I wouldn’t be surprised, but that would ignore Fantastic Beasts, Captain Fantastic, and Miss Peregrine as possible spoilers. Something from the aforementioned omissions list could also get in, but I highly doubt it at this point.

The one inclusion here that surprises, but absolutely delights, me is Kubo and the Two Strings. Animated films rarely ever appear in physical craft categories like production design, costume design, cinematography, or visual effects. While the latter has seen a few at the Oscars and elsewhere, the prior three are very often ignored. It’s nice to see some recognition for the very bold and creative work put into the film even if it is stop-motion. I don’t know if the CDG has ever done it before as I haven’t had the time to research, but the ADG (Art Directors Guild) definitely needs to do it more often and should have done it for this particular film.