The Oscar crafts contenders embrace a wide range of genres, periods, subjects, themes, and settings this season — costume design among them — with a particular emphasis on the movies, music, and political/social activism. The early frontrunner is two-time winner Catherine Martin, for her work on her husband and creative partner Baz Luhrmann’s delirious “Elvis.” Likely to join the Elvis Presley biopic in the race are such anticipated fall releases as Damien Chazelle’s epic “Babylon” (Paramount), Noah Baumach’s dystopian “White Noise” (Netflix), David O. Russell’s absurdist “Amsterdam” (20th Century), Ryan Coogler’s transformational “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Marvel/Disney), Andrew Dominik’s impressionistic “Blonde” (Netflix), Sam Mendes’ wistful “Empire of Light” (Searchlight Pictures), Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans” (Universal), and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s introspective “Bardo” (Netflix).
Other noteworthy contenders include Chinonye Chukwu’s galvanizing “Till” (UA), Kasi Lemmons’ bittersweet “I Want to Dance with Somebody” (Sony), the