2021 Oscar Predictions: MAKEUP and HAIRSTYLING (February)

The Oscar shortlists really turned this category upside down. Major players like Bill & Ted and Borat 2 didn’t make the cut despite being exactly the kind of prosthetics this branch usually loves. What they did do is acknowledge traditional Black hair in One Night in Miami and Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey, something they’ve almost totally ignored in the past.

Birds of Prey bounces back in a big way after Warner Bros mysteriously left the film off their 2020 FYC awards page in favor of Wonder Woman 1984, which was snubbed here.

After making the BAFTA longlist, The Little Things found its way on the Oscar shortlist as well, despite largely just being a few minor transformations with teeth and some prosthetics for Jared Leto, who uses his own hair in the film. It showing up here (especially after Leto himself earned SAG and Golden Globe nominations) marks yet another film of his to land here. 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club and 2016’s Suicide Squad both won the Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar. I could be underestimating it as I did with Leto himself but we’ll see.

Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar predictions in Makeup and Hairstyling for February.

Green – moves up ↑; Red – moves down ↓; Blue – new entry this month +; Black – no change ↔

1. Hillbilly Elegy ↑ (Netflix) – BAFTA longlist, BFCA
, MUAH (x3)
Eryn Krueger Mekash (makeup department head), Patricia Dehaney (hair department head), Matthew Mungle (prosthetic designer)

2. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom ↓ (Netflix) – BAFTA longlist, BFCA
, MUAH (x2)
Sergio Lopez-Rivera (personal makeup for Viola Davis), Mia Neal (hair department head, wig Designer & wig builder), Jamika Wilson (personal hair for Viola Davis)

3. Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn ↑ (Warner Bros) – MUAH (x2)

Nominees TBD

4. Pinocchio ↑ (Roadside Attractions) – BAFTA longlist, MUAH

Mark Coulier (prosthetic makeup designer), Dalia Colli (makeup artist), Francesco Pegoretti (hair designer)

5. Emma. ↑ (Focus Features) – BAFTA longlist, BFCA
Nominees TBD 

6. Mank ↔ (Netflix) – BAFTA longlist, BFCA, MUAH (x2)
Kimberley Spiteri (hair department head), Gigi Williams (makeup department head)

7. Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey + (Netflix) – MUAH
Nominees TBD

8. One Night in Miami… (Amazon Studios) +

Scott Wheeler (makeup department head), Sabrina Cruz Castro, (makeup co-department head), Nakoya Yancey (hair department head)

9. The Little Things (Warner Bros) + – BAFTA longlist
Donald Mowat (makeup department head), Michael White (hair department head)

10. The Glorias (Roadside Attractions) +
Nominees TBD

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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