2021 Oscar Predictions: PRODUCTION DESIGN (December)

Erik Anderson December 23, 2020

Although most of the action in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom takes place in just a few locations, I think the film will have more broad support than most of us initially thought. The top four holds strong, with Mank sweeping critics’ wins for production design so far.

The category expands to a top 10 this month, giving us a lot of green for things like The Midnight Sky, The Trial of the Chicago 7, The United States vs Billie Holiday and Judas and the Black Messiah. Emma. is the only drop this month as voters are likely to latch onto The Personal History of David Copperfield, which has already received a few mentions.

I think there’s real room for Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey if Netflix wants to make the push for it. It hits a sweet spot between Hugo and WALL-E that voters would vote for…if they knew about it.

Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar predictions in Production Design for December.

Green – moves up; Red – moves down; Blue – new entry this month

1. Mank (Netflix)
Donald Graham Burt (production designer), Jan Pascale (set decorator)

2. Mulan (Walt Disney Pictures)
Grant Major (production designer), Anne Kuljian (set decorator)

3. The Personal History of David Copperfield (Searchlight Pictures)
Cristina Casali (production designer), Charlotte Dirickx (set decorator)

4. News of the World (Universal Pictures)
David Crank (production designer), Elizabeth Keenan (set decorator)

5. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Mark Ricker (production designer), Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton (set decorators)

6. The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
Jim Bissell (production designer), John Bush (set decorator)

7. Emma. (Focus Features)
Kave Quinn (production designer), Stella Fox (set decorations)

8. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
Shane Valentino (production designer), Andrew Baseman (set decorator)

9. The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Paramount Pictures)
Daniel T. Dorrance (production designer), Pascale Deschênes (set decorator)

10. Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (Netflix)
Gavin Bocquet (production designer), Rob Cameron (set decorator)

Other Contenders (alphabetical by film)

Ammonite (Neon)
Sarah Finlay (production designer), Sophie Hervieu (set decorator)

Cinderella (Sony Pictures)
Paul Kirby (production designer), Kathryn Pile (set decorators)

Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
Wynn Thomas (production designer), Jeanette Scott (set decorator)

Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros)
Sam Lisenco (production designer), Rebecca Brown (set decorator)

One Night in Miami… (Amazon Studios)
Page Buckner (production designer), Janessa Hitsman (set decorator)

The Prom (Netflix)
Jamie Walker McCall (production designer), Gene Serdena (set decorator)

Rebecca (Netflix)
Sarah Greenwood (production designer), Katie Spencer (set decorator)

Tenet (Warner Bros)
Nathan Crowley (production designer), Kathy Lucas (set decorator)

Image of Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey courtesy of Gareth Gatrell/Netflix

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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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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.