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'Looper' Makes Oscar Shortlist for Makeup, But 'Cloud Atlas' Does Not

by Alex Billington
December 16, 2012
Source: Deadline

Well, I guess I was wrong. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed their "shortlist" of the seven films that remain in competition in the Make-Up and Hairstyling category for the 85th Academy Awards. Essentially, the seven films that have passed the test and earned a spot amongst possible nominees at the Oscars in February. There were many excellent films with outstanding make-up this year, including at least Anna Karenina and Cloud Atlas. But it looks like the Academy didn't admire the make-up in Cloud Atlas as much as I did, as they've instead chosen seven films including the likes of Men in Black 3.

The "Makeup and Hairstyling" category is always interesting. It usually ends up only being three films with nominations; in 2011 the nominees were Barney's Version, The Way Back and The Wolfman, with the latter horror flick actually nabbing the win. I suppose great make-up is an art that only other make-up artists can truly appreciate. Which is why these seven films have advanced to the next round (in alphabetical order):

Hitchcock (dir. Sacha Gervasi)
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (dir. Peter Jackson)
Les Misérables (dir. Tom Hooper)
Lincoln (dir. Steven Spielberg)
Looper (dir. Rian Johnson)
Men in Black 3 (dir. Barry Sonnenfeld)
Snow White and the Huntsman (dir. Rupert Sanders)

Here's how they finally cut these seven down to three nominations: "On Saturday, January 5, all members of the Academy's Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films. Following the screenings, members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration." We'll find out more when the nominees are announced January 10th, before the full Academy Awards ceremony on February 24th, 2013 next year. I'm very intrigued that Cloud Atlas didn't make the cut. While I can't argue about Lincoln, Les Mis, Looper, The Hobbit or Hitchcock, since they all had superb make-up, I do question Men in Black 3 (though it was Rick Baker) and Snow White especially in lieu of movies like Cloud Atlas or Moonrise Kingdom or Django Unchained or even Hyde Park On Hudson.

Looper

Filed under Awards, Discuss, Movie News

From around the web:

Isildur_of_Numenor

Well, Snow White had the dwarfs I guess... I don't know much about make-up.
flamenx01

I suppose Men in Black 3 had all the 1960s aliens in it for make-up
Cody W

The makeup in Cloud Atlas was way too distracting. I can see Looper winning, the Willis makeup coupled with JGLs Willis mannerisms was epic good.
- me
  
  looper will also win because of the scene where you're seeing the guy's fingers and other body parts disappearing. that scene was too intense.
  - Alex
    
    According to Rian Johnson, the director of Looper, that scene where the guys body-parts are disappearing is entirely CG.
    - me
      
      serious, that's really good cg, lol
- AJ
  
  Totaly agree! Josephe Gordon did a great job as a younger Bruce Willis. Overall a great movie one of the best this year.
jez

Expect Men in Black 3 to win thanks to the Academy's love of Rick Baker.
Alex

Good. The makeup in Cloud Atlas was easily the worst part of the movie. Downright horrible makeup.
Hazedmind

Lincoln was actually crazy good makeup, and the hairstyles were dead on
fem!anon

Sort of makeup-related, but i was just thinking that if Looper was written with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in mind as the lead, why did they make him look like Bruce Willis? The more I thought about it, the more peeved I got lol It's a shame about Cloud Atlas, because I thought the makeup was insanely cool. I have my fingers crossed for The Hobbit :T I love how some of the Hobbit production videos showed the process of hair and makeup - was pretty fascinating.
- AJ
  
  Because they got a star like Willis on board to play the older part and since the two (JGL and Willis) dont look alike the only option was to have Joseph wear makeup.
Payne by name

It's amazing that this would be nominated because I felt the makeup is what distracted me so much from the film. I spent 30 mins wondering what was different about Gordon and then when I clocked it, could see nothing else. Naive film making in my opinion that they expected the audience to swallow time travel but wouldn't be able to make the association that Gordon was a younger Bruce.
- Wafffles
  
  Perhaps, but let's be honest, for every one of you there are ten people whining that JGL "looks nothing like a younger Bruce. Wah."