For our sixth Rundown article, we look at the category most responsible for changing actors’ appearances. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Makeup & Hairstyling as well as general commentary about the race. Thursday, we’ll cover a category where things in your wildest imagination come into being.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Winner Predictions

• All Quiet on the Western Front (PP O)
• The Batman
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• Elvis (WL R) [New] (TL O)
• The Whale (TB O)

Runner-Up Predictions

• All Quiet on the Western Front (WL O)
• Elvis (TB O)
• The Whale (PP O) (TL O)

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Wesley Lovell: After the Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists guild selected The Whale for best prosthetics, we ignored the strength of Elvis, which won two prizes from the same group. The BAFTA win calcified the opinion that this race as shifted to one where Elvis is in the lead and anything else would be a surprise.
Peter J. Patrick: The extensive makeup and hairstyling utilized in All Quiet on the Western Front seems to me to be the most deserving, but if they want to go for a single entity’s makeup and hairstyling, The Whale could take it. Waiting in the wings is Elvis for those who can’t get enough of the icon.
Tripp Burton: No revised predictions or commentary provided.
Thomas La Tourrette: This is really a toss up between The Whale and Elvis. The guild gave its special award to The Whale, which should have put it in first place for the Oscar, though it did give two other awards to Elvis. Then the BAFTA for makeup went to Elvis which definitely muddied the waters, as well as giving best actor to Austin Butler as Elvis. The Whale did a convincing job of making Brendan Fraser look like he weighed 600 pounds, including a scene of him in the shower. But that is the only makeup job they do. Elvis had to make Austin Butler look like Elvis over a number of years and also age characters playing Colonel Tom Parker and Priscilla Presley. Early on I figured that The Whale had this in the bag, but I think without a win for Brendan Fraser as best actor, its chance of winning here is also diminished. If Fraser wins the SAG award, then this probably shifts back towards The Whale, but right now I would give the advantage to Elvis.

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