‘Barbie’ vs. ‘Poor Things’: The two top contenders for production and costume design Oscars duke it out

A lot has been written this year about the juggernaut double feature that is “Barbenheimer.” That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be about “Barbie” vs. “Oppenheimer” when it comes to some of the below-the-line crafts races at the Oscars.

Although Christopher Nolan‘s “Oppenheimer” certainly will do well in the below-the-line categories, as will Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” there are two crafts categories that will more likely come down to “Barbie” and another movie, Yorgos Lanthimos‘s “Poor Things.” Those categories are Best Production Design and Best Costume Design.

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Both movies have blown away audiences since their releases. As you probably already know, Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie,” starring Margot Robbie as the title character and Ryan Gosling as her somewhat clueless paramour Ken, was one of the biggest blockbusters of 2023, having made $1.4 billion worldwide after an astounding $162 million domestic opening back in July.

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Lanthimos’s “Poor Things” stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe, and it’s a sumptuous visual masterpiece that in any normal year would be a can’t-miss in both crafts categories. Lanthimos is no stranger to the Oscars; his last movie, “The Favourite,” received 10 nominations, five of them below-the-line, including Costume and Production Design. Gerwig’s previous two movies, “Little Women” and “Lady Bird,” also received multiple Oscar nominations, with “Little Women” winning for its costumes.

So the pedigree is there for “Barbie” and “Poor Things” to do very well at this year’s Oscars. Both films are very likely to be included in the Best Picture nominations, and both Gerwig and Lanthimos are presumed to be in the running for Best Director noms as well. But it’s in the specific categories of Costume and Production Design where they’re likely going to be neck-and-neck for the next few months.

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“Barbie” costume designer Jacqueline Durran is a two-time Oscar winner for “Little Women” and “Anna Karenina” with six other nominations, mostly for her work with director Joe Wright. “Barbie” is her second movie with Gerwig. “Poor Things” costume designer Holly Waddington has already been nominated for and won a number of critics awards but is new to the Oscar scene.

Since “Barbie” is based on a hugely popular Mattel doll that girls can dress up in various costumes, Durran’s biggest challenge was to deliver hundreds of original outfits for all the different Barbies and Kens in their circle of friends. Meanwhile, Waddington had to come up with many different looks for Emma Stone’s Bella Baxter over the course of her evolution, as well as for all the wacky characters she encounters, many of whom dress quite outlandishly. Case in point is Ruffalo’s manipulative fop, Duncan Wedderburn. But Waddington found a way to give the characters looks that are more out-of-time than in a normal period piece.

Both films were nominated by the Costume Designers Guild for their 26th Annual CDG Awards, although “Poor Things” was nominated in the guild’s period category while “Barbie” was considered sci-fi/fantasy. So both films can thus win when the guild announces its winners on February 21, 2024.

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“Barbie” production designer Sarah Greenwood has been honored with six Oscar nominations, most recently for Joe Wright’s “Darkest Hour,” because she too has been a frequent collaborator with that filmmaker. Besides creating the sumptuous, pink-tinged Barbieland with her set decorator Katie Spencer, Greenwood had to modify locations like Barbie’s Dream House into something very different once the men in the story take over.

The production design on Lanthimos’s movie was by the duo of Shona Heath and James Price, working together for the first time since it was such a big job. It involved creating alternate versions of London, Lisbon and Paris that mixed the glorious looks of period locations with odd, futuristic modifications. It’s quite something to behold but hard to describe because it straddles two categories at the Art Directors Guild’s Excellence in Production Design Awards. Is it period design? Is it fantasy design? Where “Poor Things” and “Barbie” end up in that group’s awards  – nominations will be announced on January 9 – will be quite interesting. They may very well consider “Barbie” to be contemporary, which means the two films won’t face each other for ADG recognition.

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One advantage that “Barbie” certainly has in both categories is that the craftspeople involved are already very well known to Oscar voters. Let’s face it, when you see the name of a known colleague or friend on a ballot, you are more apt to vote for them than less established creators. But make no mistake that everyone in production design will know the names of Heath and Price after watching “Poor Things.”

Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 23, leading to six or seven weeks of jockeying and campaigning, as both “Barbie” and “Poor Things” try to make a mark on the presumptive below-the-line frontrunners, “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Personally, I think the two movies will split, with “Barbie” winning for its costumes while the “Poor Things” production design is too overwhelmingly fantastic to be ignored.

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