2021 Oscar Predictions: MAKEUP and HAIRSTYLING (September)

Always a head scratcher of a category, especially once the shortlist rolls around with shocking snubs and inclusions. Prosthetics are still king here so we’ll likely see Viola Davis’s padded suit in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom show up alongside the Harley Quinn makeup in Birds of Prey. Don’t forget, Suicide Squad won here just a few years ago so we already know the makeup and hairstyling branch is probably going to go for it, even if it’s not quite as elaborate as Jared Leto’s Joker was in SS.

Even with the category finally going to a solid five nominees as of last year, this branch still has their favorites: padding and old people makeup. Bombshell, Vice and Darkest Hour as the last three winners shows that. That bodes well for Ma Rainey, as mentioned above, and Hillbilly Elegy if Glenn Close’s makeup is significant enough (a production pic would be nice, Netflix). But with two-time Oscar winner and special makeup effects designer David LeRoy Anderson behind it I would say it’s in.

Without big names like Kazu Hiro, Ve Neill and Greg Cannom making up films for 2020/2021 (or 7-time winner Rick Baker, for that matter) that opens the door a bit for others. Being branch-voted, it’s also a category that isn’t tied to box office, critical acclaim or star power like the acting and directing categories are so this is where we get our Norbits and Lone Rangers. But what might be our Border, A Man Called Ove or 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared that comes from a little-seen non-English language film?

Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar predictions in Makeup and Hairstyling for September. [UPDATED to reflect the just announced move of Eternals to November 2021 and West Side Story to December 2021]

1. Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (Warner Bros)
Nominees TBD

2. Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix)
Nominees TBD

3. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Nominees TBD

4. Dune (Warner Bros) [moved to October 2021]
Nominees TBD

5. Mulan (Walt Disney Pictures)
Nominees TBD

Other Contenders (alphabetical)

Ammonite (Neon)
Nominees TBD

Mank (Netflix)
Nominees TBD

News of the World (Universal Pictures)
Nominees TBD

The Personal History of David Copperfield (Searchlight Pictures)
Nominees TBD

Respect (MGM/UA)
Nominees TBD

The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Paramount Pictures)
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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