When Avatar: Fire and Ash was included in the list of nominees for the 98th Academy Awards, I wasn’t surprised. Well, at least, I wasn’t shocked it was nominated for Best Special Effects. No, what grabbed my attention was that it is also nominated for… Best Costume Design. That seems weird, to say the least. Production Design? That would have made sense. And I fully expect it’ll win the special effects category, and deservedly so. But Costume Design? That one still has me scratching my head and wondering if it means we’ll see a change in this category in the future.
What Is The Academy Rewarding Fire And Ash For?
I know what you’re thinking: isn’t most of the Avatar series shot with motion-capture using greenscreens, with almost everyone in Pandora created using CGI, including what the Navi are “wearing”? Well, yeah, it is, and they are. So what’s going on here? I’ve also thought it was big period pieces, like fellow nominees Hamnet, Marty Supreme, Frankenstein, and Sinners, that usually dominated this category. How is Fire and Ash even in there?
Does this mean that the future is now, and CGI-heavy costumes will be included more often? Maybe. It’s way outside of the traditional box, but more and more movies are working this kind of “costuming” in. We’ve come a long way from Ryan Reynolds notorious CGI-heavy suit in 2011’s Green Lantern (his son's favorite movie). One look at the latest Avatar and that much is clear. The costumes (if we’re calling them that) look fantastic, so maybe this isn’t such a bad thing
It’s Not Totally Undeserving, Even If It Means A Recalibration
Deborah L. Scott, who is the costume designer for Avatar: Fire and Ash, has worked with director James Cameron for years. She’s previously won an Oscar for her work on Titanic (another period piece). She explained that she still designs the costumes the old-fashioned way, telling THR:
I draw my sketches old-school, with a pencil on paper. We have almost 20,000 designs on paper from the last two films, because they evolve.
She added that she works with the CGI team in post-production to make sure the look of each character is what she and Cameron are looking for:
We have a seat at the table through post-production, and we’re working daily or weekly with the VFX team. This is real costume design work. So it’s like a door opening to a new era to have that nominated and recognized as an alternate way of designing costumes.
Scott has a valid point. She (and her team) are doing the same kind of work they would do on a movie like Titanic or Shakespeare in Love or any other film you’d expect to find in this category. It’s just a new medium. Instead of cloth and thread, it’s making sure the effects artists are recreating the designs she came up with. After all, the category is for design, not tailoring, right?
Ultimately, I’m still not sure how I feel about this evolution. In some ways, I love it. CGI is a key component in filmmaking these days, so it’s only natural that the awards would recognize that. On the other hand, it’s not what we’ve come to expect in Costume Design, and I don’t want to see CGI take over everything in the filmmaking process. We’ll have to tune in on March 14th to see how things shake out at the Oscars. In the meantime, I might take a look back on the previous two Avatar movies with my Disney+ subscription with a keen eye on the costumes.
