Oscars

American Gangster – Arthur Max, Beth A. Rubino

Atonement – Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

The Golden Compass – Dennis Gassner, Anna Pinnock

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo

There Will Be Blood – Jack Fisk, Jim Erickson

Will win: For the record – and I sort of alluded to this earlier, but you, er, might have skipped over it – “art direction” is a fancy way of referring to a movie’s physical production design, namely its stages and sets. The award is also sometimes dubbed “art direction / set decoration”, just to make things extra confusing. Read More

The Bourne Ultimatum – Christopher Rouse

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – Juliette Welfling

Into the Wild – Jay Cassidy

No Country for Old Men – Ethan Coen, Joel Coen (as Roderick Jaynes)

There Will Be Blood – Dylan Tichenor

Will win: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly has an outside chance, but this is really about the big dogs facing off again. It should really be no contest; No Country for Old Men is paced so efficiently and edited with such precision that no other movie stands a chance. Throw in the fact that the far more purposeful There Will Be Blood runs two-and-a-half hours, and the Coens take home another one. Read More

Atonement – Dario Marianelli

The Kite Runner – Alberto Iglesias

Michael Clayton – James Newton Howard

Ratatouille – Michael Giacchino

3:10 to Yuma – Marco Beltrami

Will win: Musicals tend to rule in this category, but the Academy couldn’t find any it liked this year (given that Across the Universe just covers countless songs by the Beatles, it doesn’t qualify), so that gets us absolutely nowhere. What is informative, however, is that six of the past seven winners were also Best Picture nominees – using that logic, we’re narrowed to two choices. As fine a film as Michael Clayton is, I can’t recall anything about James Newton Howard’s music – it may have functioned admirably, but if so, it did its work in the background. Dario Marianelli’s score for Atonement, in contrast, exists almost as its own character, mirroring the movie’s broad range of emotions with wondrous sonic versatility. It is truly arresting music and should have firmly implanted itself into voters’ memories. Read More

Across the Universe* – Albert Wolsky

Atonement – Jacqueline Durran

Elizabeth: The Golden Age – Alexandra Byrne

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – Colleen Atwood

La Vie en Rose – Marit Allen

Will win: Hey, a category Atonement might actually win! Nothing’s certain though. I don’t think Across the Universe poses much of a threat, since the movie was so brutally panned that I bet a significant number of voters skipped it, but everything else remains in contention. Elizabeth: The Golden Age is one of those dratted Victorian era pieces (wait, that’s probably the Elizabethan era) that always fare well at the Oscars (recent winners in Costume Design have included Topsy-Turvy, Shakespeare in Love, and Restoration). La Vie en Rose is one of those wretched biopics that’s allegedly infused with authenticity – they’re always dangerous here. And Sweeney Todd has such a great overall look that voters might translate that into a high opinion of the movie’s costumes. Read More

August Rush* – Jamal Joseph, Charles Mack, Tevin Thomas (“Raise It Up”)

Enchanted – Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz (“Happy Working Song”)

Enchanted – Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz (“So Close”)

Enchanted – Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz (“That’s How You Know”)

Once – Glen Hansard, Markéta Irglová (“Falling Slowly”)

Will win: August Rush is dead in the water. Enchanted is obviously the showier movie, but it’s highly likely that its three songs will split votes. Once is a critical darling, and it has the added benefit of only being nominated, ahem, once. Besides, it’s about time Disney loses one of these things, if only once. (O.K., I’ll stop. For once.) Read More