Mank has continued to clean up with those critics groups with a category acknowledging production design. Donald Graham Burt and Jan Pascale are quickly becoming an absolute lock for this award and their nomination is all but assured at this point.
When the nominations for the Art Directors Guild were announced, there were two noticeable omissions in Emma. and The Personal History of David Copperfield. Granted, there are several major period nominees in the running this year, but it’s a huge dent in their Oscar campaigns. The guild is filled with Academy members and if they didn’t acknowledge either film in their own guild awards, you’d have to assume they will be doing to same on their Oscar ballot.
If the British contenders are overlooked, it makes room for something more modern like Tenet. Production designer Nathan Crowley is a five-time nominee, so his pedigree speaks for itself. All but one of his nominations came from films not nominated for Best Picture, so the fact his film will only be a tech category player clearly hasn’t hurt his chances in the past.
There may just be a surprise here and that could very easily be Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey. The Netflix festive film nabbed three mentions in the Oscars shortlists (Makeup and Hairstyling, Score, and Song), which shows there’s a lot of love for this under-the-radar contender. The film couldn’t score a nomination from the ADG, but the Academy could be a different story.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN PREDICTIONS:
1. Mank (Netflix)
Donald Graham Burt (production designer), Jan Pascale (set decorator)
2. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
Mark Ricker (production designer), Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton (set decorators)
3. News of the World (Universal Pictures)
David Crank (production designer), Elizabeth Keenan (set decorator)
4. Mulan (Disney)
Grant Major (production designer), Anne Kuljian (set decorator)
5. Tenet (Warner Bros)
Nathan Crowley (production designer), Kathy Lucas (set decorator)
MAJOR CONTENDERS:
Ammonite (Neon)
Sarah Finlay (production designer), Sophie Hervieu (set decorator)
Emma. (Focus Features)
Kave Quinn (production designer), Stella Fox (set decorations)
Jim Clay (production designer), Abi Groves (set designer)
Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (Netflix)
Gavin Bocquet (production designer), Rob Cameron (set decorator)
Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros)
Sam Lisenco (production designer), Rebecca Brown (set decorator)
The Midnight Sky (Netflix)
Jim Bissell (production designer), John Bush (set decorator)
One Night in Miami (Amazon Studios)
Page Buckner (production designer), Janessa Hitsman (set decorator)
The Personal History of David Copperfield (Searchlight Pictures)
Cristina Casali (production designer), Charlotte Dirickx (set decorator)
The Prom (Netflix)
Jamie Walker McCall (production designer), Gene Serdena (set decorator)
The United States vs. Billie Holiday (Hulu)
Daniel T. Dorrance (production designer), Pascale Deschênes (set decorator)
Wonder Woman 1984 (Warner Bros.)
Aline Bonetto (production designer), Anna Lynch-Robinson (set decorator)
