Best Costume Design

What does the Costume Designers Guild Award mean for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events mean in terms of its Oscar prospects? Not much. Although the CDG Awards have accurately predicted the last two winners for Best Costume Design (which coincidentally went on to win Best Picture), before that they’d never made a match in their brief four year history. In fact, all four eventual Oscar winners (Moulin Rouge!, Gladiator, Topsy Turvy and Shakespeare in Love) weren’t even nominated by the CDG.

It appears they have a greater propensity for gothic and/or fantasy and/or family and/or Jim Carrey films than the Academy (rewarding Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Sleepy Hollow), classifications which all fit Lemony Snicket (the first CDG winner/mismatch was Pleasantville, which in terms of costume design, I’d consider more of a straight period film than a fantasy one).

Also, it seems they aren’t as fond of Sandy Powell as the Academy is. Although she’s now been nominated for six Academy Awards (winning one for Shakespeare in Love), this year’s CDG nomination for The Aviator was surprisingly her very first.

So I’m predicting an Aviator win here, though if I were truly a stickler for trends, I’d go with either Troy or Finding Neverland (probably Troy), neither of which were nominated for CDG Awards.