2025 Oscar Predictions: Best Production Design

As is the case with most below-the-line Oscar categories, bigger equals better when it comes to Best Production Design. The more lavish the sets, the more accurate the period detail, the more extravagant the designs, the more likely your film will win an Academy Award. Formerly known as Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, this prize goes to the production designer and set decorator, leaving the poor art directors on the outside looking in; perhaps that accounts for the title change. (Scroll down for the most up-to-date 2025 Oscar predictions for Best Production Design.)

Like Best Costume Design, this award rarely corresponds with Best Picture. Before “The Shape of Water” prevailed in both categories in 2018, the last to line-up was “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” in 2004. Often, the winner of this race hasn’t even been nominated for the top prize, as was the case with “Memoirs of a Geisha” (2006), “Pan’s Labyrinth” (2007), “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (2008), “Alice in Wonderland” (2011), and “The Great Gatsby” (2014).

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Academy voters love period designs, as seen in recent winners such as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2009), “Hugo” (2012), “Lincoln” (2013), “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2020), “Mank” (2021),  “All Quiet on the Western Front” (2023), and last year’s champ “Poor Things.” The latter also won Best Costume Design. It joined 10 other double dippers this century.

Four were fantasies (“Black Panther,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Alice in Wonderland,” and “LOTR: The Return of the King”); four were period pieces (“The Grand Budapest Hotel,” “The Great Gatsby,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “The Aviator”); and two were musicals (“Chicago” and “Moulin Rouge!”).

UPDATED: October 15, 2024

LEADING CONTENDERS (ordered by odds)
“Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros.) — Patrice Vermette and Shane Vieau
“Gladiator II” (Paramount Pictures) — Arthur Max and Elli Griff
“The Brutalist” (A24) — Judy Becker
“Wicked” (Universal) — Nathan Crowley
“Blitz” (Apple Original Films) — Adam Stockhausen and Anna Pinnock

STRONG CONTENDERS (ordered by odds)
“Conclave” (Focus Features) — Suzie Davies, Roberta Montemale, and Cynthia Sleiter
“Nosferatu” (Focus Features/Universal) — Craig Lathrop
“Emilia Perez” (Netflix) – Emmanuelle Duplay, Virginie Montel
“Maria” (Netflix) — Guy Hendrix Dyas and Sandro Piccarozzi

POSSIBLE CONTENDERS (alphabetical order)
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” (Warner Bros.) — Mark Scruton, Lori Mazuer, and David Morison
“Civil War” (A24) – Caty Maxey”Sing Sing” (A24) – Ruta Kiskyte
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” (Warner Bros./Universal) — Colin Gibson and Katie Sharrock
“Here” (Sony Pictures) — Ashley Lamont, Anna Lynch-Robinson, and Sarah-Jane Prentice
“Joker: Folie à Deux” (Warner Bros.) — Mark Friedberg and Karen O’Hara
“Kinds of Kindness” (Searchlight) – Anthony Gasparro
“Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios) — Nora Mendis and Monique Champagne
“The Piano Lesson” (Netflix) — David J. Bomba and Patrick Cassidy
“Saturday Night” (Sony Pictures) — Jess Gonchor and Claudia Bonfe

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