Best Costume Design Nominations - 84th Academy Awards

Tomorrow night is the 84th Academy Awards. The Oscars is the one awards ceremony I watch religiously every year. Of course, being a costumeholic, my favourite category is Best Costume Design! Here are this year’s nominees to look out for.

Anonymous (2011)

Anonymous is set in the Elizabethan court and tells the story of Lord Oxford, the true author of the Shakespearean plays. Costumes by Lisy Christl.

The Artist (2011)

Also receiving 9 other nominations, The Artist is a silent, black and white movie set between 1927 and 1932. A popular silent movie actor, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) feels left behind by the new talking films, personified by a new upcoming actress, Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo). Costumes by Mark Bridges.

P.S. I love Jean Dujardin. He has also played Brice DeNice, Lucky Luke and Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath, agent OSS 117. I wish him the best of luck!

Hugo (2011)

Set in a somewhat steampunk 1930’s, Hugo is about an orphan living in the walls of a train station, an automaton his father left him, a girl named Isabelle, and her cranky old godfather, Ben Kingsley as Georges Méliès (who, if you don’t already know, really lived and was one of the first to use cinema to tell fantastical stories with special effects and all). Costumes by Sandy Powell.

Jane Eyre (2011)

Yet another on screen version of this Charlotte Brontë story. If by any chance you still do not know what it is about, the eponymous character is an orphan who is abused by her aunt and cousins in her childhood, is then sent to a girls school where more abuse follows, becomes a governess but falls in love with her employer and runs away when on their wedding day, she discovers he is already wed, lives with a nice but strict family and is in the end reunited with her love. Costumes by Michael O'Connor.

W.E. (2011)

W.E. is about a 1998 New Yorker obsessed with what she believes is the ultimate love story, the one that captivated the world in 1936, King Edward VIII and American divorcee Wallis Simpson. Through research, she discovers it was not as perfect as she imagined. Costumes by Arianne Phillips.

So which movie are you rooting for? To be honest, I am not that excited about the nominees this year. Too much despair, not enough fantasy. I did see Jane Eyre and liked some of those Romantic era dresses, but I guess my vote goes to The Artist: the concept is original in our time, and like I said, I love Jean Dujardin.