Monday night, I was subjected to “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” where Cate Blanchett did a whole lot of showboating and Shekhar Kapur messed with history way too much. I found the result to be histrionic silliness. But I can’t fault Alexandra Byrne’s flawless costumes dawned by Blanchett and her co-stars.

Kapur’s film tells us a great deal about the category which awards costumes at the Academy Awards. First and foremost, having a respected costume designer on board is a major bonus. Alexandra Byrne has only worked on seven previous films, and has been, rather incredibly, nominated for three of them – “Hamlet,” “Finding Neverland” and the first “Elizabeth.” Not exactly a shabby resume. Seeing at least two perennial favorites among the nominees is commonplace.

The costume design category is also one which consistently awards the period piece. Period pieces have some advantage in a great number of categories. But Best Costume Design takes the cake. For the eleven years between 1995 and 2005, almost all nominees were period, with just a splattering of fantasy nominees. Admittedly, we saw two contemporary nominees last year (“The Queen” and “The Devil Wears Prada”), which I personally found very refreshing. But “The Devil Wears Prada” was ABOUT fashion design and “The Queen” costumed some of the most famous people in the world. I don’t see any films in a similar situation this year.