There are so many elements that go into creating a visually stunning, and generally brilliant, film. It’s just not the sets, special effects or beautiful cinematography. The costumes also play a giant part of keeping one’s eyes focused on the screen. Sometimes, the costumes that are featured in a film are so outstanding, they've got their own category in many of the major award shows. Sadly though, this particular category is so overlooked more often than not, especially when it is running up against such categories as Best Visuals, Best Special Effects and the biggie, Best Picture.
With the BAFTAs just gone by and the Oscars rapidly approaching, why not take a look at the Best Costume Design awards?
For several years, the Academy have presented most of the awards to a contemporary film if it was a black and white film. While the colour category revolved around films that dealt with epics or fantasies or musicals. Once the two categories were merged, only two films set in modern times have won the Oscar, although the majority of the films nominated have been contemporary. The two films that won were The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Travels with My Aunt.
This year, the BAFTAs and the Academy Awards basically share(d) similar nominations, with Milena Canonero winning the BAFTA for her brilliant work on The Grand Budapest Hotel. For the Academy, while the nominations are brilliant, it seems the award will be neck and neck. It'll be either The Grand Budapest Hotel winning, or the absolutely outstanding designs of Colleen Atwood, already a three time Academy Award costume design winner, for Into the Woods. One of the best things about Into the Woods was the costume design.
It’s nice to see people behind the scenes recognized for something that may otherwise get overlooked. The amount of time that goes into the costumes, from initial planning and sketches, to fittings, to finding the proper materials and then making the costumes takes hours upon hours and layers of hard work. Even then, if a costume doesn’t initially work, things need to be started all over again. Luckily, people like Colleen, Milena, Penny Rose, the Powells and more who know what they are doing and give us the brilliant designs we see on the big screen today.
Some of my favourite costumes vary, from films such as Priscilla, to Phantom of the Opera, Memoirs of a Geisha, Titanic, The Duchess, and more. I’ve always been a fan of costume design, as it’s basically my favourite part of going to see a film. Because of this, it pleases me greatly that such a diverse category is recognized.