2021 Oscar Predictions: COSTUME DESIGN (January)

One of the more potentially open races this season, Oscar-winning and nominated designers like Mark Bridges (News of the World) and Alexandra Byrne (Emma.) will go seam to seam with hopeful first-timers like Paolo Nieddu (The United States vs Billie Holiday, which rises this month) and Bina Daigeler (Mulan).

While it’s true that this branch really, really loves its favorites. 46 of the past 50 nominees were Best Picture nominees or designers who had at least been nominated before. That’s a pretty tight stitch to pull off if you don’t fall into either of those categories. It could spell downfall for a Nieddu or Daigeler, whose films aren’t likely to be Best Picture-nominated, over someone like Susan Lyall for like BP contender The Trial of the Chicago 7 or a previous winner and three-time nominee like Michael O’Connor for Ammonite.

Here are my ranked 2021 Oscar predictions in Costume Design for January.

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

1. Mank (Netflix)
Trish Summerville

2. Emma. (Focus Features)
Alexandra Byrne

3. The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Paramount Pictures)
Paolo Nieddu

4. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Ann Roth

5. News of the World (Universal Pictures)
Mark Bridges

6. Mulan (Walt Disney Pictures)
Bina Daigeler

7. The Personal History of David Copperfield (Searchlight Pictures)
Suzie Harman, Robert Worley

8. Ammonite (Neon)
Michael O’Connor

9. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
Susan Lyall

10. Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros)

Charlese Antoinette Jones

Other Contenders (alphabetical)

Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
Donna Berwick

The Glorias (Roadside Attractions)
Sandy Powell

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (Netflix)
Michael Wilkinson

Rebecca (Netflix)
Julian Day

One Night in Miami… (Amazon Studios)
Francine Jamison-Tanchuck

The Witches (HBO Max)

Joanna Johnston

Emma. image courtesy of Focus Features

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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.

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