2024 Oscar Predictions: COSTUME DESIGN (October)

Big names are set to take up a lot of space in Costume Design this year with Jacqueline Durran (Barbie), Mark Bridges (Maestro) and Janty Yates (Napoleon) among the previous Academy Award winners here looking add one more to their shelf.

In a group filled with previous Oscar nominees and winners, Poor Things‘ Holly Waddington stands out as one of most likely first-timers here. She’s worked in period pieces before with Hulu’s The Great and the 2016 version of Lady Macbeth with Florence Pugh but nothing quite like the level of fantasy intertwined with an exaggerated historical representation of Victorian era London, Paris and Turkey that reveal Bella’s (Emma Stone) journey of social and sexual awakening through her style, materials and color palette.

Francine Jamison-Tanchuck is another potential awards newcomer for her work in The Color Purple, the film adaptation of the Tony-winning musical. Her previous work is gorgeous and remarkable with Emancipation (2022), One Night in Miami… (2020) and Detroit (2017) among her recent efforts. Taking young Celie and Nettie’s muted looks from the deep South in the early 1900s to the roaring 20s with Taraji P. Henson’s vibrant and jazzy chanteuse Shug, Jamison-Tanchuck’s costumes run the gamut. Stacey Battat reinterprets the looks of Priscilla and Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and has worked with the director on all of her films since 2010’s Somewhere. From wedding dresses to matching guns with gowns, Battat finds the right place between accuracy and interpretation of the 1960s.

Oscar nominations will be announced on January 23, 2024 and the 96th Academy Awards will be held on March 10.

Here are my 2024 Oscar predictions in Costume Design for October 2023.

1. Barbie (Warner Bros) – Jacqueline Durran
2. Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures) – Holly Waddington
3. Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures) – Ellen Mirojnick
4. Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple Original Films/Paramount Pictures) – Jacqueline West
5. Maestro (Netflix) – Mark Bridges
6. The Color Purple (Warner Bros) – Francine Jamison-Tanchuck
7. Napoleon (Apple Original Films/Sony Pictures) – David Crossman and Janty Yates
8. Priscilla (A24) – Stacey Battat
9. Ferrari (NEON) – Massimo Cantini Parrini
10. Wonka (Warner Bros.) – Lindy Hemming

Next up: Asteroid City (Focus Features) – Milena Canonero; Chevalier (Searchlight Pictures) – Oliver Garcia; The Iron Claw (A24) – Jennifer Starzyk; The Taste of Things (IFC Films) – Nu Yên-Khê Tran; The Zone of Interest (A24) – Malgorzata Karpiuk

Other contenders: 

• Air (Amazon MGM Studios) – Charlese Anoinette Jones
• Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (Lionsgate) – Ann Roth
• BlackBerry (IFC Films) – Hanna Puley
• Blue Beetle (Warner Bros) – Mayes Rubeo
• The Boys in the Boat (MGM) – Jenny Eagan
• Cassandro (Amazon MGM Studios) – María Estela Fernández
• The Creator (20th Century Studios) – Jeremy Hanna
• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Paramount Pictures) – Amanda Monk
• Freud’s Last Session (Sony Pictures Classics) – Eimer Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh
• Golda (Bleecker Street) – Sinead Kidao
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios) – Judianna Makovsky
• The Holdovers (Focus Features) – Wendy Chuck
• The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (Lionsgate) – Trish Summerville 
• Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Walt Disney Pictures) – Joanna Johnston
• The Little Mermaid (Walt Disney Pictures) – Colleen Atwood
• The Marvels (Walt Disney Pictures/Marvel Studios) – Lindsay Pugh
• Rustin (Netflix) – Toni-Leslie James