The frontrunners in this year's awards race inproduction, costume design, and make-up are impressing Academies both sides ofthe Atlantic.

The sumptuous world of the Geisha in 1930s Japan, theJamestown settlement of 1607, Jerusalem in the 12th Century or London duringthe Blitz.

The range of design spectacle and period opulence on showin the films of 2005 gives the crafts categories of both US and UK Academies awealth of choices.

Certainly in categories such as cinematography, artdirection/production design and costume design, the field has a range ofvividly realised period films set in exotic locales vying for the prize.

Rob Marshall's Memoirs Of A Geisha has to be a frontrunner for the sheer beauty and artistryon show, but then again it faces stiff competition from Kingdom OfHeaven, The New World, Pride & Prejudice, Casanova and Cinderella Man.

Then there are more recent period stories such as Munich,Brokeback Mountain and GoodNight, And Good Luck. and 1930s-set KingKong which reunites much of theOscar-winning talent from The Lord Of The Rings trilogy.

Not to be forgotten are the effects-driven blockbusterssuch as The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, WarOf The Worlds, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, which will not only dominate the visual-effectscategories, but also offer stunning production designs and concepts of theirown.

The details and innovations in these films areincredible. For example, Emanuel Luzbeckishot entirely with natural light on The New World; Dion Beebe covered the entire outdoor set of Memoirs Of AGeisha with a silk screen to capture the appropriate lighting; theeffects wizards at Weta created a range of emotions for King Kong based on the human expressions of actor Andy Serkis;production designer Andrew Sanders recreated Shanghai in 1936 ona rundown set in Shanghai itself. The list of achievements is long.

OTHER CONTENDERS:

Arthur Max and Sonja Klaus (set decoration), Kingdom Of Heaven

John Myhre, MemoirsOf A Geisha

Andrew Sanders, Steve Simmonds and YuBai Yang, The White Countess

Stuart Craig, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire

Nathan Crowley, BatmanBegins

Roger Ford and Kerrie Brown (set decoration), The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch AndThe Wardrobe

Alex McDowell, CharlieAnd The Chocolate Factory

Allan Starski, OliverTwist

Gavin Bocquet, StarWars: Episode III

Mark Friedberg and Ellen Christiansen (set decoration), The Producers

Guy Dyas, TheBrothers Grimm

Bill Boes and Elizabeth Wilcox (set decoration), Fantastic Four

James D Bissell, GoodNight, And Good Luck.

Sarah Greenwood, Pride& Prejudice

Rick Carter and Anne Kuljian (set decoration), War Of The Worlds

Howard Cummings and Barbara Munch (set decoration), Rent

Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski,Mrs Henderson Presents

Ben van Os, TheLibertine

David Gropman, Casanova

David J Bomba and Carla Curry (set decoration), Walk The Line

Rick Carter, Munich