Twelve Days of Oscars, Day 3: Production Design and Costume

The Oscars are getting closer, I've seen all of the Best Picture nominees and the majority of the multiple nominees, and you all know what that means: I start checking off the boxes in those "other" categories - the one-off, the randoms, the make-up nominations, things like that.  Tonight, I watched Beauty and the Beast (2017, Emma Watson, you know...), which means I have now completed the Production Design and Costume categories. Time to unleash judgment!

Production Design: Beauty and the Beast, Blade Runner 2049, Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, The Shape of Water

Costume Design: Beauty and the Beast, Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, The Shape of Water, Victoria and Abdul

Once again, as with yesterday's look at Editing and Score, I have chosen to look at  overlapping categories: three Production Design and Costume nominees are the same, two in each are different. I suppose this isn't altogether surprising, what with sumptuous visuals being a common feature in both, right?

We might as well get my freshly watched Beauty and the Beast out of the way here: I don't want it to win in either category. Not because this movie is, with all due respect to Emma Watson (seriously, I like her), a snooze-fest that really has no need to exist. Although it definitely is that. But because:
Production Design? Really? More like CGI design. Half of this "live action" remake was STILL dancing, prattling on clocks and teacups and whatnot, so obviously digitally rendered. Who even knew how much castle/village backdrop was a set? And Costume? Weeellll... I get it, why it was nominated and all, but I am so NOT a fan of the color yellow that the iconic Belle dress turns me right off these costumes. Sorry, B and the B!

Moving on, then. Also nominated in both categories, we have Darkest Hour and The Shape of Water. To be honest, I'm a little surprised at Darkest Hour being nominated here. I guess there were a LOT of costumes, but were they really THAT hard? And the production design... well, the maze of undergroundy offices and things was cool, I guess. I doubt it'll win, though. The Shape of Water, on the other hand, is definitely a contender to just kind of sweep a bunch of awards. It's nominated all over the place and people really dig it. Will these be two of them? I think it would be a waste to give The Shape of Water a Costume prize, but Production Design is definitely something it might get, especially if it's on its way to winning the "big" prizes when the big night comes.

But I personally think I'm leaning toward Blade Runner 2049 for Production Design (sorry, Dunkirk - nice ocean, though). It was such a cool, realized world with many, many, many different settings and moving parts, and so imagined and non-traditional.

And for Costumes? Really, it could be Victoria and Abdul, and I'd be totally OK with that. What about Phantom Thread?  Such a strange nominee here. I mean, there are some cool clothes in that movie, mostly appearing as plot points of the movie, and it's kind of weird to think of an Academy Award for something that's part of the spoken plot. Then again, they did have to be designed - even if we were to believe Daniel Day Lewis' character did all that work.

We'll get to acting categories soon, in the next couple days. For now, I've completed only about a half dozen categories, and have now shared with you my inability to decide them. What do you think?

Previous Days of Oscar:
Day 2: Editing and Original Score
Day 1: Sound Mixing and Sound Editing