Oscar Predictions: Best Costume Design

This year, Oscar nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 14th. I’ll be offering detailed predictions in most of the major categories, saving some of the biggest categories for last.

Last year’s nominees: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inherent Vice, Into the Woods, Maleficent, Mr. Turner

This year’s locks: Carol, The Danish Girl

Very likely: Brooklyn

Possible: Trumbo, The Hateful Eight, Joy, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Cinderella, Beasts of No Nation

Unlikely: Plenty of others, I’m sure!

The rundown: Like the Art Directors Guild, the Costume Designers Guild separates its nominees, announced last Thursday, into three categories: contemporary, period, and fantasy. The last two are more important to take seriously. From the period section, I think Brooklyn, Carol, The Danish Girl, and Trumbo could well represent four out of five of our nominees here. From fantasy, Cinderella could represent contenders that won’t show up in other races, while Mad Max: Fury Road is likely to be honored here along with its many other accolades. From the contemporary field, Joy and Beasts of No Nation would both be cool inclusions. Both The Revenant and The Hateful Eight didn’t make the cut with the CDG and could show up here anyway.

One possible crazy scenario: Star Wars: The Force Awakens becomes the first film in its series since the original took home this award in 1977 to be nominated here.

Forecasted winner: I think that The Danish Girl gets this.