Sandy Powell Oscar Contender

This is Powell’s 10th Oscar nomination. She has won the costume design award three times, including for Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic,“The Aviator.” The opportunity to work again with the director, a frequent collaborator, was a major motivation for her to sign on to the lavish 3-D family movie, but so was its source material, the illustrated children’s novel “The Invention of Hugo Cabret.” The Oscar nominations were announced early Tuesday morning, but the day was heading into night in England, where costume designer Sandy Powell ended up learning the news of her Academy Award nod for Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” while she was stuck in traffic. “I was in a car being driven by a friend in a traffic jam on a rainy London afternoon,” Powell said. “David [Davenport], my [costume] supervisor, sent me a message saying, ‘You better start looking for a dress!’” - – more
Highlights: Oscar nominations doesn’t necessarily mean an Award but it’s close. Sandy Powell a seasoned Costume Designer has brought the art of Costume Design to a level of greatness. Other nominees for films like War Horse Steven Spielberg’s epic, The Descendants with George Clooney, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hugo directed by Martin Scorsesse, are all a shoe for the Academy Awards. Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre has been playing host for the presentations in the past few years where winners like SOCIAL NETWORK, THE KING’S SPEECH and BABLE enjoyed being honored. Just think, back when it all started the Hollywood Roosevelt was host. Now it’s a great part of Oscar History. Don’t forget the many other categories: Art Direction, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actress Oscar and so on. Film Schools in LA are now very prevalent and talent from all over the globe go there waiting for their day in the sun. French actors, British actors and of course our American actors all await being an Oscar Winner whether they admit or not. Period costumes for The Silent Film “The Artist” inspired great artistry and performance by a great assortment of Talent from various parts of the World. Wow…good Old Hollywood!

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Costumer JOHN DUNN for Cable Drama, talks

John Dunn began researching costumes for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire by scouring the legendary libraries at the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, as well as photographs inside the Library of Congress. Executive Producer Martin Scorsese even compiled a 1920s film reel for the costume designer, who also visited New York vintage shops and Los Angeles costume warehouses. “That’s what really informed us about the construction, the fabrics, materials, details, colors. And the latter was really eye-opening,” says Dunn, who was Emmy-nominated for the first season of Mad Men “We are so used to looking at that period in black-and-white films and sepia photos. Not a lot of the original color survived. But if you take apart a hem or a seam in a vintage garment, you’re like, ‘Holy Cow! Look at that color!’ It was not a drab period at all. We were amazed by the colors even the men were wearing back then.” Dunn used only authentic fabrics, nothing that did not exist in 1920, and often had to have fabrics specially woven for the men’s suits to get the proper period weight and texture. Steve Buscemi’s clothing was custom-made by master tailor Martin Greenfield, who could turn out a suit for the show in just four days, often in triplicate. -- Read more about John Dunn HERE

This Article was written by Elizabeth Snead @ deadline.com

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