The Academy has announced its shortlist of seven Best Makeup and Hairstyling contenders. The films will proceed to the “bake-off” stage, where reels of the work put into the makeup and hairstyling effects will be screened for the branch and three nominees will be chosen, revealed alongside the rest of the Oscar nominations on January 10.
The immediate exclusion of note is “Cloud Atlas,” which transformed a number of movie stars across a variety of eras, ages and even races. Some of the work was quite wonderful, but much of it was a bone of contention for some, and clearly, that bore itself out in the narrowing process for the branch.
Also absent is “Holy Motors,” which isn’t a shock, one supposes. Who knows if the membership even bothered to watch the film. Because you’d think, if they had, they would have seen that it’s far and away the best representation of their contribution to the form this year. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be, and with “Who Were We?” failing to make the finalist cut for Best Original Song, the film’s Oscar hopes in general have likely been dashed.
Another film that unfortunately (in my opinion) missed was “The Impossible.” The work on wounds and whatnot was very well accomplished, but like with the Best Visual Effects shortlist, the film got the shaft.
The other two we were predicting for a nomination, “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and “Lincoln,” both made the list and seem like likely nominees. I’d say the third is a toss-up between “Hitchcock” and “Les Misérables,” though I wouldn’t count out “Men in Black 3” and the great Rick Baker. “Snow White and the Huntsman,” too for that matter. Hell, any of these could get nominated and I wouldn’t be surprised.
The full list:
“Hitchcock”
“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey”
“Les Misérables”
“Lincoln”
“Looper”
“Men in Black 3”
“Snow White and the Huntsman”