Just under two weeks left until the 82nd Academy Awards. Today, we’re looking at the Best Makeup award. Below are five facts, our predictions for winners and alternates, and our favorite and least favorite winners in this category.

Trivia: Five Facts

• Given as special honorary awards in 1964 and 1968, the category was not made a competitive award until 1981. No award was given in 1983. Rick Baker was the first competitive winner taking the prize for his work on An American Werewolf in London.
• Rick Baker is also the most nominated Makeup artist in the category’s history receiving a total of 10 nominations. Just behind him with 9 nods is Greg Cannom followed by Ve Neill with eight and Michèle Burke with seven. Baker also leads the winner front with six victories. His nearest competitor are Cannom and Neill with three each. And with two wins each are David Leroy Anderson, Michèle Burke, Richard Taylor and Yolanda Toussieng
• 55 Oscars have been given out in this category excluding the two honorary awards given out.
• In 28 years, four Best Picture winners have also won Best Makeup: Amadeus was the first in 1984, followed by Driving Miss Daisy 1989, Braveheart in 1995 and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in 2003. In addition to these four, six other Best Picture winners were also nominees (Gandhi in 1982, Schindler’s List in 1993, Forrest Gump in 1994, Titanic in 1997, Shakespeare in Love in 1998 and A Beautiful Mind in 2001).
• Makeup is one of a select few categories that are voted on a rated system. Each eligible submission is graded and the top rated films earn nominations. The Makeup Branch committee may also decide to have no award, a special achievement award for one film, two or three nominations. Since its inception as a competitive, it has never given out a special citation only (though, as mentioned above, the group has opted not to give an award once in 1983).

Predictions

• Il Divo (Peter, Wes)
• Star Trek (Wesley, Tripp, Wes)
• The Young Victoria (Peter) (Wesley, Tripp)

KEY: (Winner Prediction) (Alternate Winner)

The Commentary

Wesley Lovell – The reason this is a tough category to predict is the Elizabeth factor. Elizabeth managed to win this award despite having virtually no prosthetic work. The Young Victoria seems of the same style as Elizabeth and could very well be the winner. Of course, there’s also Star Trek, which has the most prosthetic makeup of all the nominees. The problem is that the Star Trek franchise has recevied ten nominations prior to this year (the new film matching Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’s total of four nominations for a franchise-tying record), but has never won an Oscar. While I think this will certainly be the one time it succeeds, but if the brilliant makeup work in Star Trek: First Contact can’t win, then it’s quite possible this film will lose as well. Il Divo remains a potential spoiler thanks to the Il Divo. In the last seven outings in this category, foreign language films have won three times: Frida, Pan’s Labyrinth and La Vie en Rose. And if both La Vie en Rose and Frida can win, then Il Divo has a shot, thus making this category a bit too close to call.
Tripp Burton – This award usually equals “most makeup” (or “most prothsetics”), which means here it should go to the alien get-ups of Star Trek. Add in that this is the only real chance the Academy will have to honor the critically successful summer blockbuster, and it should defeat worthy nominees The Young Victoria and Il Divo pretty handily.

Our Favorite Winners

KEY:
Appears on Two Lists
Appears on Three Lists
Appears on Four Lists
Appears on Opposing Lists

Wesley Lovell

1. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Gary Oldman’s many faces are just one aspect of the overall makeup work done with Dracula, but it’s an impressive one.)
2. Pan’s Labyrinth (Twisted and bizarre creatures make for some interesting and original effects.)
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Blending hairstyle, prosthetics and traditional makeup, this is part of an overall stellar design for the film.)
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Sometimes the computer touches up the work, but the makeup effects making Brad Pitt older are astonishingly detailed.)
5. Beetlejuice (Perhaps a bit clownish, the makeup work in Beetlejuice is one of its most notable and interesting features.)

Peter J. Patrick

1. An American Werewolf in London (exciting makeup greatly added to the fun of the film)
2. Mask (Eric Stoltz’s makeup brilliantly conveyed his character)
3. The Fly (marvelous makeup made Jeff Goldblum’s transformation from man to bug seem terrifyingly real)
4. Pan’s Labyrinth (startling imagery comes to life through makeup)
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (the many ages of Brad Pitt convincingly done)

Tripp Burton

1. Dick Tracy (The prosthetics in this film, and the oddly successful comic book look to them, add a layer of fantasy to the film that is essential to the success of the film.)
2. Mrs. Doubtfire (Almost 20 years later and the image of Robin Williams as an old woman still looks realistic and perfect)
3. Ed Wood (Martin Landau’s transformation to Bela Lugosi is uncanny, while the rest of the cast get their looks down perfect. )
4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (The technical achievements of this film still amaze me, and the battle plagued Arnold Schwarzenegger is key to that achievement)
5. The Nutty Professor (It may not be one of the best films to be honored as an “Academy Award Winner,” but there is no denying the makeup transformation achieved here.)

Planet of the Apes is by far the greatest, but I discounted honorary awards

Wes Huizar

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring & The Return of the King (This is a tie because the makeup on these films were essentially the same work, which is the reason why The Two Towers was deemed ineligible for this category in 2002)
2. Dick Tracy
3. An American Werewolf in London
4. Ed Wood
5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Honorable mention: Planet of the Apes (It was awarded a Special Achievement Oscar for its makeup, so it’s technically not a winner in this category, but it featured the most influential prosthetic makeup in film history, so I feel that it should at least be mentioned)

Our Least Favorite Winners

KEY:
Appears on Two Lists
Appears on Three Lists
Appears on Four Lists
Appears on Opposing Lists

Wesley Lovell

1. Braveheart (So, putting on lots of blue face paint is Oscar worthy. Perhaps Hollywood could save itself some money and hire four-year-olds to do their makeup work.)
2. The Nutty Professor (So, Eddie Murphy needs a different face for each of his characters. Most makeup does not always equate best…especially when the phenomenal makeup work in Star Trek: First Contact was passed over.)
3. Frida (When the Oscars flashed scenes of the makeup effects work in this film, I was wondering why a unibrow constituted great makeup. Perhaps they should have shown some of the other work, but against The Time Machine, I guess there was little other choice.)
4. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Jim Carrey’s films have won this award twice…it’s not bad work, but it’s not great work.)
5. Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (see A Series of Unfortunate Events.)

Peter J. Patrick

1. Braveheart (the blue face makeup was the worst aspect of a bad movie)
2. Quest for Fire (nothing special)
3. Harry and the Hendersons (see above)
4. Mrs. Doubtfire (doesn’t do much to camouflage Robin Williams)
5. Dick Tracy (rubber masks would have done as well)

Tripp Burton

1. Braveheart (I could have designed that blue makeup smear)
2. Elizabeth (A film I have never found visually appealing)
3. Frida (A weak winner in a year with no real choices)
4. Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (A horrible movie, with a lot of makeup that does little to capture the charm of Dr. Seuss’ book)
5. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (This achievement here is admirable (and it was hard to come up with a fifth film), but the film is so ugly that I don’t know if it is completely successful)

Wes Huizar

1. Frida (So many other worthy candidates were deemed ineligible this year, so they should’ve just not given out the award in the first place. The makeup is fine, but certainly not Oscar worthy)

I have no complaints with any of the other winners. Looking over all the winners, I couldn’t imagine any other alternatives considering the nominees.)