Yes, we’re going to be seeing a lot of guilds these next few weeks. This guild splits its art direction into three categories: Period, Fantasy, and Contemporary. The academy’s Art Direction branch takes this guild’s opinion with a grain of salt.. and maybe a little pepper. They basically pick and choose from Period, add one or two from Fantasy and completely ignore Contemporary. So, as Mario likes to say, let’s a goooooooooo!!!

PERIOD

Argo
Anna Karenina
Django Unchained
Les Miserables
Lincoln

Um, wouldn’t Argo look better in Contemporary? Well, it certainly won’t make it in the Oscars, but the other four have a chance. I wouldn’t bet it all on Django, though.

FANTASY

Cloud Atlas
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life Of Pi
Prometheus

Interesting that all five of these films are on the Academy’s VFX shortlist. I’m going to say that you can see two of the Oscar contenders here: Cloud Atlas, because it has all three genres of art direction in it, and The Hobbit, because it’s middle earth. I’m a bit confused about Life Of Pi, considering that there’s nothing but sky and water in the background for a lot of the movie. But hey, I love the movie anyway. BTW, where is Mirror Mirror?

CONTEMPORARY

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Flight
The Impossible
Skyfall
Zero Dark Thirty

I’m voting for Skyfall on this. Chances are it will win when the time comes, but don’t be surprised if ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ steals, simply because it is the bigger contender.

So, that’s that. Judging from these awards, I think that the Academy Award nominations for Art Direction will be something along the lines of;

Anna Karenina
Cloud Atlas
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Les Miserables
Lincoln