For our ninth Rundown article, we look at Best Makeup & Hairstyling. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Makeup & Hairstyling as well as general commentary about the race. Wednesday, we’ll cover Best Supporting Actress.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Winner Predictions

• Emma.
• Hillbilly Elegy
• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (WL O) (TB O) (TL O)
• Mank
• Pinocchio

Runner-Up Predictions

• Pinocchio (WL O) (PP R) [New] (PP R) [New] (TL R) [New]

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Wesley Lovell: This may be one of the toughest categories this year in terms of predicting. With several prominent contenders missing the final list, it comes down to a fight between Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which took two awards at the Make-Up Artists Guild Awards last week, and their prosthetic award winner, Pinocchio. I want to go out on a limb and predict the Italian film, but Ma Rainey’s has so few places to recognize the film that I suspect it will pick up some of the lower categories, like this one. I could also see Hillbilly Elegy winning as that’s a more traditional winner for groups like this.
Peter J. Patrick: This is a strong category this year. Any of the nominees could win, but I’m going to go with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom mainly for Viola Davis’ transformation as the title character with the latest live action version of Pinocchio poised to surprise.
Tripp Burton: With its two big wins at the guild awards this weekend, Ma Rainey seems like a solid front-runner here. The impressive hair and make-up in the film is integral in creating the world of the film, and the SAG award wins show just how much love there is for the film, despite its relatively low nomination haul.
Thomas La Tourrette: Originally, I expected Hillbilly Elegy to do well here as they did such an amazing job recreating the characters from life. But with nary a win from the guild, it looks unlikely to win here. This leaves the race between Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Pinocchio. Pinocchio did win the biggest award from the guild, but it was so little seen that it is difficult to imagine the Academy getting behind it. Still, I have heard the makeup work was truly outstanding as they did it with makeup rather than with CGI. That said, I think it will go to the transformation of Viola Davis into Ma Rainey, but could easily go the other way. Ma Rainey did win two makeup and hairstyling awards from the guild, so they do like it. I do not think the other two films stand any chance here.

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