‘Poor Things’ Gets Early Oscar Wins For Production Design, Makeup & Hairstyling & Costume Design

Poor Things has gotten off to a strong start at tonight’s 96th Oscars. In a mini-upset, the absurdist comedy directed by Yorgas Lanthimos and starring and produced by Emma Stone has taken statuettes for Production Design, Makeup & Hairstyling and Costume Design. See the winners acceptance speeches above and below.

James Price and Shona Heath, along with set decorator Zsuzsa Mihalek, was the production design team behind the Searchlight Pictures film.

Price, Heath and Mihalek bested the teams behind Oppenheimer (production design: Ruth De Jong; set decoration: Claire Kaufman); Barbie (production design: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer); Killers of the Flower Moon (production design: Jack Fisk; set decoration: Adam Willis) and Napoleon

production design: Arthur Max; set decoration: Elli Griff).

The Poor Things team also took the Art Directors Guild’s Fantasy film award for production design last month and Oppenheimer took the ADG’s Period film award.

Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston were honored in the Makeup & Hairstyling category, besting MUAHS Awards winner Maestro and the teams behind Golda, Oppenheimer and Society of the Snow.

Holly Waddington took the Oscar for Costume Design, beating Jacqueline Durran for Barbie, Jacqueline West for Killer of the Flower Moon, Janty Yates and Dave Crossman for Napoleon and Ellen Mirojnick for Oppenheimer.

Based on Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel of the same name, Poor Things stars Stone as Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.  

The film is nominated for 11 Oscars tonight, including best picture, best actress for Stone, director for Lanthimos and supporting actor for Mark Ruffalo.