FINAL 2021 Oscar Predictions: COSTUME DESIGN

With its win at the Costume Designers Guild last night, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom has now swept the costume precursors – the first to do so since 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road – and is on its way to a 2nd win for 89-year old Ann Roth, which will make her the oldest woman to win an Oscar if she triumphs on the 25th. James Ivory, who won Adapted Screenplay for Call Me By Your Name in 2018, is the current oldest winner ever. He was also 89 but older than Roth by three months.

There is a chance, albeit a small one, that Bina Daigler’s work in Mulan – which also won a CDG award – can surprise. Costume Design isn’t a category that is Best Picture-dependent as others tend to be and elaborate costuming can overcome a frontrunner. Trouble is, when that happens it’s usually one of two things; the type of European royalty we’ve seen win here for decades or a designer so well known (like a Colleen Atwood or a Sandy Powell) that they usurp. Baigler, on her first nomination, definitely doesn’t fall into that category and while royalty plays a factor in world of Mulan it’s not a traditionally celebrated one. Still, it has a reasonable outside chance to upset.

While Emma. hasn’t been able to snag any precursor wins, it didn’t miss a beat with nominations and it does have behind it a name. Alexandra Byrne is a 7-time Oscar nominee and winner for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and the Jane Austen period era is quite the time and style that Oscar loves. She could also potentially upset, but again, an outside shot.

The 93rd Oscars will be held on April 25 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and the Union Station in Los Angeles.

Here are my ranked final Oscar predictions in Costume Design.

1. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix) – BAFTA, BFCA, CDG
Ann Roth

2. Emma. (Focus Features) – BAFTA, BFCA, CDG
Alexandra Byrne

3. Mulan (Walt Disney Pictures) – BFCA, CDG
Bina Daigeler

4. Mank (Netflix) – BAFTA, BFCA, CDG
Trish Summerville

5. Pinocchio (Roadside Attractions) – CDG
Massimo Cantini Parrini

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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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