Oscars 2017 Category Breakdown: Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Every year, as we lead up to the Oscars, I break down each of the 24 categories. I do this to familiarize everyone with the category; what the trends are, how the guilds and stuff help (or don’t), etc. I also do it as a precursor to my giant Oscar ballot. I get most of the heavy lifting out of the way here, so that way when I get to the article, I’m just kind of riffing on how I think it’ll turn out and talking myself into all the bad decisions. It’s like college. And this is the pregame.

How these articles work is — I give you all the previous winners and nominees of each of the categories, then tell you how accurate each of the respective guilds and precursors are in what they vote for versus what wins the Oscar, tell you how each of them voted this year, then give you this year’s category, along with a quick rundown of how we ended up with that category (what was a surprise, etc). After that, I rank each of this year’s nominees in terms of how I see them right now in terms of their likelihood to win. Which is nothing more than my perception (notice that underline, even though you won’t) of how the category seems at the moment based on everything I know and have seen. Which will give you a general sense of the favorites.

Today is Best Makeup & Hairstyling. A category we usually don’t really care about, which is especially the case this year.

There is a Makeup & Hairstylists Guild, but most of the time, you can use intuition to figure out what’s going to win.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

Darkest Hour

Victoria & Abdul

Wonder

Pretty straightforward. There were seven shortlisted films. The only other one who seemingly had a shot at a nomination was I, Tonya. in the end, they took Victoria & Abdul. Okay. Either way, it was gonna be the #3.

Rankings:

3. Victoria & Abdul — Did people even see this? No one is taking this, sight unseen. Not when the other two nominees have such showy jobs with the makeup. We can try to reason a way in which this wins, but for now, there’s no way you can’t immediately understand why this is the #3 in terms of likelihood to win. There’s really nothing more to add. It just is.

2. Wonder — The protagonist has a facial deformity. It’s like Mask all over again. (Mask, by the way, won this category.) If it weren’t for the favorite, this would probably be the winner. But I can’t see it coming down with it, even if the movie was a surprise hit. Though if it does manage a win with this being its only nomination, I guess you’d have to call it a one hit… Wonder!

*backs away slowly*

1. Darkest Hour — Gary Oldman is gonna win Best Actor, so people know the makeup job. They transform him into Winston Churchill, and it’s believable. It already has a BFCA win and will win the BAFTA in like ten days. Think back to when Meryl won for playing Margaret Thatcher. The makeup team came along with her. Why? Because she campaigned with them and brought them to events. Gary Oldman’s been doing the same. This is your favorite.

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