The Art Directors Guild represent the production designers and costume designers that make the sets and overall artistic designs of motion pictures pop. If you love the location, the decor or anything about the visual look of a film, you can probably thank an Art Director. They don’t have a spotless history predicting the Oscars, but with three categories, they can give us clues to what may have a chance at the Oscars. After the break are our predictions for who will win this Saturday’s prizes.

ART DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS

Best Period Art Direction

12 Years a Slave (Peter)
American Hustle (RU:Tripp)
The Great Gatsby (Wesley, Tripp)
Inside Llewyn Davis (RU:Peter)
Saving Mr. Banks (RU:Wesley)

Wesley Lovell: It’s hard to imagine a situation where the more bountiful designs of The Great Gatsby not winning the award. Sure, it’s possible for something else to come through, but Catherine Martin seems to be the frontrunner here and at the Oscars.
Peter J. Patrick: With five strong contenders anything is possible, but my guess is the oldest period represented will pull it off.
Tripp Burton: The Art Directors are one group that don’t really care if your film is a Best Picture contender, so 12 Years a Slave won’t be helped too much here by its status. The decadence of The Great Gatsby should win here easily, but if they really love American Hustle it could prove competitive here.

Best Fantasy Art Direction

Elysium (RU:Peter)
Gravity (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (RU:Wesley)
Oblivion
Star Trek: Into Darkness (RU:Tripp)

Wesley Lovell: A win by anything other than Gravity would be a bit of a shock and none of us can agree which it would be.
Peter J. Patrick: The sets for Gravity were the most impressive. It should win easily.
Tripp Burton: I don’t know exactly how Gravity is a Fantasy Film, considering most of it actually takes place in real places just in space, but it should easily triumph here.

Best Contemporary Art Direction

August: Osage County
Blue Jasmine (RU:Wesley)
Captain Phillips (RU:Peter, RU:Tripp)
Her (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)
The Wolf of Wall Street

Wesley Lovell: It seems a cheat to call Her contemporary when it’s supposed to be near-future. That alone may give it an advantage.
Peter J. Patrick: Her is the most imaginative among the nominees and should win.
Tripp Burton: Her picked up the rare Art Direction Oscar nomination for a contemporary film, and while it won’t win there, it should win pretty handily here.

USC SCRIPTER AWARDS

Best Adapted Screenplay

12 Years a Slave (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)
Captain Phillips (RU:Tripp)
Philomena (RU:Wesley, RU:Peter)
The Spectacular Now
What Maisie Knew

Wesley Lovell: The Scripters have a long history of awarding either the Oscar frontrunner or the most literary or both if that’s what they happen to be. With these choices, I see 12 Years a Slave an easy winner.
Peter J. Patrick: It seems to me that the screenplay based on the 19th Century best-seller will win overwhelmingly here. There is no likely runner-up, but Philomena seems to me to be the most likely winner were 12 Years a Slave not in the hunt.
Tripp Burton: The Scripters award both the screenwriter and the author of the source material, so how can they resist giving an award to Solomon Northup. If they don’t, it is because recently-crowned WGA winner Captain Phillips is a stronger contender then we think.