Art Directors Guild Nominees TBA

This video is hosted, along with a few others, on the ADG site

“If the Art Directors Go For it I’ll Change My Mind”

This is what one of the best Oscar predictors told me the other day with regard to Avatar’s art direction. The Art Directors Guild will announce today, according to our calendar. The reason behind this idea is that the film is mostly designed using various technologies and not with traditional art directors building sets from the ground up. But what I forgot to tell him was that Wall-E was nominated last year in the fantasy category, thus it seems likely Avatar would make it – with some competition here or there.

Last year the winners were:

• Best period film design: Donald Graham Burt, Benjamin Button
  Nominees: Changeling, Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Milk
  
• Best fantasy film design: Nathan Crowley, The Dark Knight
  Nominees: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Iron Man, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Wall-E
  
• Best contemporary film design: Mark Digby, Slumdog Millionaire
  Nominees: Burn After Reading, Gran Torino, Quantum of Solace, The Wrestler

The Art Directors Guild divides their awards into three categories. But Oscar only gives them five slots total. Last year, those five slots went to:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which won, deservedly, though much of it was computer-generated)
Changeling
Revolutionary Road
The Dark Knight
The Duchess

The Duchess, nor Revolutionary Road weren’t even nominated for an ADG award. The nomination committee for the Oscars is a fraction of the size of the ADG, I figure. Their picks tend to represent more Academy-friendly films, those movies that might pick up awards in other categories and/or designers whose work they know and admire. The same goes for costume design.

These are just theories, though. Who knows what is true and what isn’t. So this year, what films do I think stand a good chance of an ADG nod?

Fantasy:
Avatar – I’d be stunned if it wasn’t nominated – moreover, I think it wins in this category if it secures an Oscar nod.
District 9 – giving it some tough competition (if the art director is in the guild)
The Lovely Bones — hopefully, though who knows.
Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Up
The Princess and the Frog
2012
Star Trek
Where the Wild Things Are
Harry Potter

Contemporary:
Up in the Air
The Hurt Locker
It’s Complicated
500 Days of Summer
Precious

Period:
Bright Star
Inglourious Basterds
A Single Man
Nine
A Serious Man
Coco Avant Chanel
Julie & Julia
Amelia (you never know, right?)
An Education
The White Ribbon

Contemporary is where I really have problems. Nonetheless, somewhere in those above I believe many of the nominees will be culled. There will be films I have completely forgotten, I’m sure. We will post the nominees as soon as we get them.