Birdman is at the brink of winning an Oscar, some believe, while others vote for Boyhood or even Selma. Until Sunday, when all our presuppositions and guesses will be given a fair (or not) answer, The Costume Designers Guild Awards came to celebrate the costume stylish side of the pictures. The festivities were held on 17 February at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, where a couple of Oscar nominated movies and favorites, like Birdman or Into the Woods were awarded.
Birdman impressed again, as Albert Wolsky won the Costume Designers Guild Award for Excellence in Contemporary Film. Milena Canonero added The Grand Budapest Hotel on the list of the most craved wins, which left as recipient of Excellence in Period Film Award. The fight for era costume award was given between other Oscar nominees like The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Selma or Inherent Vice. As for the race which got Birdman the big prize, Iñárritu’s contenders were Boyhood, Gone Girl, Interstellar and Wild.
When on stage, Milena Canonero spoke about The Grand Budapest Hotel’s director in witty and kind words: ‘’With Wes (Anderson), by the way, it’s great fun. People think he’s a control freak, he’s not. (Laughs) Aside from the little things, he gives you great freedom. This is my third film with him. He always gets production to get us all in the same hotel. We share dinners. I hope to make more movies with him again. I hope he asks me. It’s really Wes’s vision we followed.”
As for Albert Wolsky, representing Birdman, he seemed excited and yet insecure about what his work along with Iñárritu might imply: ‘’I was thrilled when I finally had the chance to work with Alejandro Iñárritu . I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. It was a real labyrinth. It was endless. We only had six weeks to shoot. It was like being thrown out of a cannon.’’ Thus said, filming Birdman seemed like an endless frenzy with Richard Linklater’s Boyhood as antipode, whose filming took ‘’a little bit more.’’
Television series had their share of awards, with True Detective as winner in the category Contemporary Television Series. Other titles to leave as recipients were, not surprisingly, Game of Thrones, considered the best Period/Fantasy Television Series and last but not least, American Horror Story.
2015 Costume Designers Guild Awards full list of winners (via Deadline):
Excellence in Contemporary Film
Birdman – Albert Wolsky
Excellence in Period Film
The Grand Budapest Hotel – Milena Canonero
Excellence in Fantasy Film
Into the Woods – Colleen Atwood
Excellence in Commercial Costume Design
Army, “Defy Expectations, Villagers” – Christopher Lawrence
Outstanding Contemporary Television Series
True Detective – Jenny Eagan
Outstanding Period/Fantasy Television Series
Game of Thrones – Michele Clapton
Outstanding Made for Television Movie or Mini Series
American Horror Story: Freak Show – Lou Eyrich