Costume Design: Academy Award Nominees 2015

We can talk about the validity of the Oscars all day long but this is the week that leads up to la-la land's biggest night, determining who gets a pay raise and who gets their pick of projects. Granted there are a wealth of great films overlooked by the Academy AKA the Old Boys' Club, great movies we need to see like Whiplash, Selma and Clouds of Sils Maria for starters. Putting those aside, here at Chapter1-Take1, where we usually concern ourselves with those bookish movie projects, we've taken a look at two of this year's Academy Award nominees for Costume Design, both adaptations: Colleen Atwood for Into the Woods, which has enjoyed the front runner status for an Oscar in the costume category. This past Sunday we had a look at Mark Bridges groovy 1970's designs for Inherent Vice. The thing is, neither of these films is likely to win. Here's a very quick look at the work of all nominees, and a hint, just in case you're putting money on your office pool. While Into the Woods has been the front runner in the Oscar conversation, and Oscar voters tend to love lavish period fare, lately those guys that talk about all that stuff are saying that since the Best Picture will almost certainly go to Birdman or possibly Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel will clean up on a lot of those 'craft' categories, including Costume Design in a weird consolation prize voting paradigm. The Grand Budapest Hotel has received a total of 9 nominations including one for the score by Alexandre Desplat (he's also up for The Imitation Game) who is the odds on favorite to win as is Milena Canonero for her costume designs. We'll know more when the Costume Designers Guild passes out its trophies tonight. Below photos and sketches from the drawing boards of the Costume Design nominees. Enjoy!