FINAL 2021 Oscar Nomination Predictions: COSTUME DESIGN

A peculiar category where there are three pretty clear leaders in Emma., Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Mank, who hit CDG, BAFTA and Critics Choice. From there it’s really up in the air.

Mulan and Promising Young Woman both earned CDG and BFCA nominations it’s a tough road for contemporary costumes at the Oscars so unless PYW is suddenly a top 2 film I don’t see it pulling off this hat trick so the upper hand goes to Mulan‘s period/fantasy costuming.

I’m confounded as to why News of the World hasn’t simply underperformed in costume categories, it’s non-existent. And from a previous winner, no less. When the film failed to score a Producers Guild nomination this week or a BAFTA nomination today it was enough to make me pull the film from here too. I’m taking a giant risk and going with Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey. Costumed by a previous nominee (Michael Wilkinson, American Hustle) and with colors and designs that feel impossible to pass up.

It’s a risky prediction but unless NotW massively overperforms I can see Jingle Jangle happening unless Ammonite (from previous winner Michael O’Connor) somehow translates its only BAFTA nomination into an Oscar nod. Or…15-time nominee and 3-time winner Sandy Powell shocks with a nomination for The Glorias. She’s been the sole nomination for her film three times before, not to mention Glorias director Julie Taymor’s perfect record with getting a nomination in this category for all four of her feature films.

Here are my final 2021 Oscar nomination predictions in Costume Design.

• 1. Mank (Netflix) – BAFTA, BFCA, CDG
  Trish Summerville
• 2. Emma. (Focus Features) – BAFTA, BFCA, CDG
  Alexandra Byrne
• 3. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix) – BAFTA, BFCA, CDG
  Ann Roth
• 4. Mulan (Walt Disney Pictures) – BFCA, CDG
  Bina Daigeler
• 5. Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (Netflix)
  Michael Wilkinson 

Watch out for: The Glorias (Roadside Attractions)

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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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