The guest of honor of the 2017 Berlinale Homage and receiver of the Honorary Golden Bear is Italian costume designer Milena Canonero.
The Honorary Golden Bear is given every year to the guest of honor of the Homage, an important figure in the world of film, awarded for their exceptional career.
Milena Canonero counts among the world’s most celebrated costume designers, her outstanding costume designs have previously earned four Academy Awards, and she was nominated for five more.
The costume designer’s career began when she met director Stanley Kubrick and designed her first costumes for his 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange. She then worked on his film Barry Lyndon in 1975, for which she received her first Academy Award.
She went on to design costumes for a number of movies among which were Kubrick’s The Shining in 1980, and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club in 1984 and The Godfather Part III in 1990.
Throughout her career, she has worked with numerous other prominent directors such as Sydney Pollack, Warren Beatty, Wes Anderson, Steven Soderbergh and many more.
Canonero’s designs are created from thorough art historical research and from the adaptation of parameters of fashion history for each movie she works on.
Her work thus succeeds in brilliantly accentuating a character’s personality as well as enhancing the general feel of the film. Her creations have influenced celebrated fashion designers such as Ralph Lauren and Alexander McQueen.
Milena Canonero will receive the Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlinale Palast on 16 February. Ten of the films she has worked on over the years will be screened in the Homage.
