The Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling is the Academy Award given to the best achievement in makeup and hairstyling for film. Traditionally, three films have been nominated each year with exceptions in the early 1980s and 2002 when there were only two nominees; in 1999, when there were four nominees. Beginning with the 92nd Academy Awards, five films were nominated.
Prosthetic makeup, which may also be referred to as special make-up effects or FX prosthesis, is the process of using prosthetic sculpting, molding, and casting techniques to create advanced cosmetic effects. Prosthetic makeup draws a straight lineage from the Stagecraft of theatre and can be observed at the birth of science fiction cinema with Le Voyage dans La Lune, a 1902 French adventure short film directed by pioneer of special effects Georges Méliès.
Stanley Winston was an American television and film special make-up effects creator, best known for his work in the Terminator series, the first three Jurassic Park films, Aliens, The Thing, the first two Predator films, Inspector Gadget, Iron Man, and Edward Scissorhands. He won four Academy Awards for his work.
Richard Alan Baker, known professionally as Rick Baker, is an American retired special make-up effects creator and actor. He is mostly known for his creature designs and effects. Baker has won the Academy Award for Best Makeup a record seven times from a record eleven nominations, beginning when he won the inaugural award for the 1981 horror comedy film An American Werewolf in London.
Tony Gardner is an American makeup designer, special effects designer and puppeteer. He has designed and created effects for many feature films, including the films Zombieland, 127 Hours, Smokin' Aces, Hairspray, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, The Addams Family, Seed of Chucky,Shallow Hal and There's Something About Mary. Gardner helped create the signature helmets for Daft Punk, as well as an animatronic robot for their "Technologic" music video. He wrote and directed Daft Punk's music video for the song "The Prime Time of Your Life," which also, his two daughters were in and associate produced and populated a world full of robots for the duo's feature-length directorial debut, Daft Punk's Electroma. Beyond the film-making arena, Gardner's special effects company Alterian, Inc. has also designed and created the popular GEICO Cavemen characters as well as the current iteration of Smokey Bear. Alterian's makeup effects for Johnny Knoxville's character in Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa were nominated for an Academy Award as well as a Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild Award, and won the Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Guild Award for Best Special Makeup Effects in the Feature Film category for 2014.
Gregory Nicotero is an American special make-up effects creator, television producer, and director. His first major job in special effects makeup was on the George A. Romero film Day of the Dead (1985), under the tutelage of Romero and make-up effects veteran Tom Savini.
Mark Coulier is a British make-up artist and prosthetic makeup expert, who has worked in the Harry Potter film series, X-Men and The Mummy Returns.
John Richardson is a British special effects supervisor. He is best known for his work on the James Bond film series, all the Harry Potter film series (2001-2011), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Aliens (1986). For the latter, he won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 1987 ceremony. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects for his work on the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011), for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award at the 2012 ceremony.
Paul J. Franklin is an English visual effects supervisor who has worked with visual effects since the 1990s. Franklin won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects for Inception (2010), and won a second Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for Interstellar (2014). He shared the wins with Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb, and Chris Corbould. Franklin has also been nominated for an Academy Award for The Dark Knight (2008). He was nominated for BAFTA Awards for Batman Begins, The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
Andrew Lockley is a British visual effects supervisor most known for working on most of Christopher Nolan's films.
Nick Davis is an American visual effects supervisor who has worked in visual effects since the early 1990s. He was nominated at the 81st Academy Awards for The Dark Knight, which he shared with Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin and Tim Webber. Davis was also nominated at the 93rd Academy Awards for The One and Only Ivan, which he shared with Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martinez.
Dave Elsey is a make-up artist known for special make-up effects, creature effects and animatronics in films such as X-Men: First Class, Ghost Rider, Star Wars, Hellraiser, Alien 3, and Indiana Jones. He was born on February 2, 1967, in London, England to Marie and Derek Elsey. From 1999 to 2011, Elsey lived in Sydney, Australia with his wife Lou while working on the TV science fiction series Farscape. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Paul Kavanagh is a British visual effects artist who was nominated at the 82nd Academy Awards in the category of Best Visual Effects for his work on Star Trek. His nomination was shared with Burt Dalton, Russell Earl and Roger Guyett. In 2016, he and his colleagues Chris Corbould, Roger Guyett and Neal Scanlan received the BAFTA-Award in the category of Best Special Visual Effects for their work on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. They were also nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to Ex Machina.
Neal Scanlan is a British special effects artist and make-up artist, best known for his work on the Star Wars sequel trilogy and Anthology films. He won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for Babe in 1996.
Mike Elizalde is a Mexican-American special make-up effects artist. He was nominated at the 81st Academy Awards in the category of Best Makeup for his work on the film Hellboy II: The Golden Army. His nomination was shared with Thomas Floutz.
Steve Johnson is an American special effects artist whose career has spanned more than thirty years. His work has appeared in over 200 films, countless television shows, theme parks, commercials, and music videos. Some of his best-known creations include Slimer for Ghostbusters (1984), the alien seductress Sil for Species (1995), Robin Williams's robotics for Bicentennial Man (1999), and Doctor Octopus's arms for Spider-Man 2 (2004).
Damian Martin is an Australian make-up artist specializing in prosthetic and creature makeup. He worked with Jim Henson's Creature Shop on the TV series Farscape and has worked on such films as Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. In 2016, he won an Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling along with Elka Wardega and Lesley Vanderwalt at the 88th Academy Awards for his work on the movie Mad Max: Fury Road. He was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Makeup and Hair in the 69th British Academy Film Awards.
John Stephenson, is a British director and a former vice-president and creative supervisor for Jim Henson's Creature Shop. He was nominated for a BAFTA film award in 1985 for Dreamchild and in 1991, he won an Academy Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Jim Mitchell is an American visual effects artist. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Visual Effects for the film Mighty Joe Young. Mitchell has also been nominated for three British Academy Film Awards in the category Best Special Visual Effects.
