For two-time Oscar winner Mark Bridges, designing the costumes for “News of the World” was “very exciting” as an opportunity “to work in a period that I hadn’t worked in before.” It’s a Western set just after the Civil War and stars Tom Hanks as a former Confederate soldier escorting an orphaned girl (Helena Zengel) back home to her family. Watch our interview with Bridges as part of our “Meet the Experts” costume designers panel above.

Bridges’ research for the film included “drawings” as well as “photographs from the period, newspapers, and then just trying to think about what these lives are like, what they are able to acquire.” Director Paul Greengrass, with whom Bridges previously worked on “Captain Phillips” (2013) and “Jason Bourne” (2016), also helped guide his approach to the wardrobe: “He likes a very textured, very gritty look … I think he mentioned one time to me ‘The Grapes of Wrath,...

Chances are you have not seen Snowpiercer yet due to its limited availability and release fiasco. If so, skip this interview and watch the film first. Go in clean, because Snowpiercer really is as good as everyone’s telling you. Based on the French graphic novel Le Transperceneige, it is essentially a dark (often literally) sci-fi thriller about a perpetual motion train carrying the last remnants of society after a global ice age. Themes of cruelty, disparity and sacrifice abound, and strong, sometimes horrific visual references bombard the screen. The exceptional costume design by Catherine George ties all this together in a way that is readable and indicative, yet never threatens to take over the film.

Catherine George, however unintentionally, seems to specialise in this form of costume design; you only need to watch We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) to gather this. This is not to say her work is showy in any way.