2022 Oscar Predictions: COSTUME DESIGN and PRODUCTION DESIGN (February)

Costume Design and Production often have a lot of crossover nominations and this year is no different as we have 3/5 with Dune, Nightmare Alley and West Side Story.

While Cruella has led the critics’ awards in costume design and nabbed all precursors, Dune is right behind it. But what of Nightmare Alley, who pulled off a surprise Best Picture nomination? The art deco-drenched film noir has been a beast with critics’ wins for its production design but Dune is still the leader there, just barely. Prevailing thought has largely been that Dune, arguably the biggest technical achievement of the nominees this year, would be able to easily sweep the lion’s share of technical categories, and it very well still could. There’s also a scenario in which it picks up the more VFX/Sound type of awards over these.

We’ve had several years since 2010 where one film won both: Alice in Wonderland, The Great Gatsby, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mad Max: Fury Road and most recently, Black Panther. All but the first two were also Best Picture nominees, which bodes well for Dune or Nightmare Alley to simply sweep them up.

But how do you argue against Cruella, whose very threads are about the creation of couture fashion? Plus, you’ve two-time Oscar winner (and 11-time nominee) Jenny Beavan behind the sewing machine so we could just be seeing a Mark Bridges/Phantom Thread type of win here. Fun fact: if Paul Tazewell wins Costume Design for West Side Story, he’ll be only the 2nd person to win an Oscar, a Tony (Hamilton) and an Emmy (The Wiz Live) for a craft, after art director Tony Walton.

Precursor Watch: the Art Directors Guild awards are March 5, the Costume Designers Guild awards are March 9 and both BAFTA and Critics’ Choice are March 13. Oscar winner voting is March 17-22.

Here are my ranked 2022 Oscar winner predictions in Production Design and Costume Design for February.

COSTUME DESIGN

1. Cruella (Walt Disney) – CCA, BAFTA, CDG 
Jenny Beavan

2. Nightmare Alley (Searchlight Pictures) – CCA, BAFTA, CDG  
Luis Sequeira

3. West Side Story (20th Century Studios) – CCA, CDG
Paul Tazewell

4. Dune (Warner Bros/HBO Max) – CCA, BAFTA, CDG
Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan

5. Cyrano (MGM/UAR) – BAFTA, CDG
Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran

PRODUCTION DESIGN

1. Nightmare Alley (Searchlight Pictures) – CCA, BAFTA, SDSA, ADG
Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau

2. Dune (Warner Bros/HBO Max) – CCA, BAFTA, SDSA, ADG
Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos

3. West Side Story (20th Century Studios) – CCA, BAFTA, SDSA, ADG  
Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo

4. The Tragedy of Macbeth (A24/Apple Original Films) – SDSA, ADG
Production Design: Stefan Dechant; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

5. The Power of the Dog (Netflix) – SDSA
Production Design: Grant Major; Set Decoration: Amber Richards