For our seventeenth Rundown article, the categories associated with dressing, sets and people. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design as well as general commentary about the race. Friday, we’ve reached the end of the line.

Best Production Design

Winner Predictions

• Arrival
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Hail, Caesar!
• La La Land (WL O) (PP O)(TL O)
• Passengers (TB R) [New]

Runner-Up Predictions

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (WL R) [New]
• Hail, Caesar! (PP R) [New]
• La La Land (TB R) [New]
• Passengers (TL R) [New]

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Wesley Lovell: This category has, for many years, gone to films that were intricate and set in past time periods. This may be the first year in awhile that has gone to a contemporary film. La La Land is looking to rack up a number of prizes this year and one of its targets is this category. It would be unusual for it to win against some of these films, but even the Art Directors Guild ignored nominees in favor of non-nominees in its winner selections. La La Land is barely leading this race, but the likes of Fantastic Beasts or Passengers could surprise.
Peter J. Patrick: This is one that La La Land should take easily with either Hail, Caesar! or Arrival its closest rivals.
Tripp Burton: Well, what a crazy category this is. In one corner, you have La La Land. It seems poised to go on some sort of streak, but will that carry over here? It is a contemporary film, mostly filmed on location, with really only a final montage sequence that feels “designed.” It has very little solid competition, though. The Art Directors Guild gave awards to La La Land, Passengers, and the non-Oscar-nominated Hidden Figures, while BAFTA went with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The Academy has never been as welcoming to the Harry Potter franchise as the BAFTAs. Best Picture nominee Arrival is much more minimalist than this award tends to get, and Hail, Caesar! is a film that most people seem lukewarm on (and the last time a film won this award with no other nominations was 1989). La La Land seems a safe choice, but I am going out on a limb with my pick. I’m predicting Passengers, the most ornate of the choices and a film that picked up two nominations on Oscar nomination morning that most of us weren’t predicting. No guts, no glory, right?
Thomas La Tourrette: I am not totally certain that La La Land deserves this award, but I think it will likely win it. It has the most precursor awards, including one from the Art Directors Guild for Best Contemporary Design. Personally, I would give it to pretty much any of the other nominees, but it looks like it will take this one home. Arrival and Hail, Caesar! probably have the least chance of scoring an upset. Fantastic Beasts would be my choice for both the vintage sets, some of which have to crumble under the beasts, and the fantastical worlds created inside the magic office and an ordinary looking suitcase. Since it did not manage a win from the guild, though it did get the BAFTA, it may be out of the running. The film that could upset would be Passengers, a surprise winner at the guild. The world of the spaceship was elegant and intricate and it would be a reasonable winner. However, it looks likely to be won by La La Land.

Best Costume Design

Winner Predictions

• Allied
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Florence Foster Jenkins (WL O)(TL R) [New]
• Jackie (PP R) [New] (TB O)
• La La Land

Runner-Up Predictions

• Allied (WL R) [New]
• Florence Foster Jenkins (PP R) [New]
• La La Land (TB O) (TL R) [New]

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Wesley Lovell: I would be surprised if La La Land picked up this prize. Some think it could break the record currently held in a three-way tie between Ben-Hur, Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. In order to do that, it must pick up this prize. That may be easier said than done. Florence Foster Jenkins is very much a traditional type of winner for this category and most and most intricate costumes are one thing these voters go to. Of course, when you tackle iconic outfits, something like Jackie can become a strong player, like it did at BAFTA. Of course, the Costume Designers Guild last night managed to muck things up by ignoring all of the Oscar nominees on those lists except for La La Land. I still stick with my predictions, but I’m going to suggest that Allied, which wasn’t guild nominated, might have an outside chance at winning this thing.
Peter J. Patrick: This one should be a consolation prize for Jackie, with Florence Foster Jenkins poised to upset.
Tripp Burton: Contemporary-set films have a very hard time with this category, especially if they don’t have a big twist to their modern setting, which would seem to be an inhibiting factor to La La Land winning here. The question is, what other film could win? The Costume Designers Guild awarded two films not nominated for Oscars, along with La La Land, while the BAFTAs honored Jackie. None of these films seem like a lock to win, although none seem out of the realm of possibility, so I’m sticking with the BAFTA winner and going with Jackie. It’s a very tight race, though.
Thomas La Tourrette: This has been a difficult category to predict, and almost any of the nominees could win. Allied boasted some gorgeous dresses for Marion Cotillard, but it probably stands the least chance of winning. Contemporary films rarely win this, but La La Land could be one that does. The brightly colored dresses used for the dance in “Someone in the Crowd” are memorable enough that it could win. Fantastic Beasts boasts lots of vintage 40s costumes and Jackie recreated a number of iconic 60s pieces. The film with the most original works was Florence Foster Jenkins, if just for the costumes she wore onstage, let alone the wealth of other vintage pieces in the film. It would seem Florence would easily win, but it recently lost out at the Costume Designers Guild awards to non-Oscar nominee Hidden Figures. Jackie and Fantastic Beasts also lost at the guild awards, whereas La La Land won for best Contemporary Costume Design. I do not know if that means that La La Land will go on to win this award too, but when the favorites falter, it could be poised to sneak in for a win. A win here could help propel the film to a tie for the most wins ever as it would start sweeping awards that were not thought likely for it. I am still going back and forth on that happening. My gut instinct is that something vintage is more likely to win, so I will predict Florence Foster Jenkins as the winner, but will not be surprised if La La Land sneaks in to take the Oscar.

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