The power of the Oscars is in their celebration not only of world famous actors, but also of all the amazing professionals who work behind the scene to make our beloved movies so real and credible. The sounds, effects, and costumes are, in fact, an essential component and can make the difference between a good film and a great one.
At the 87th Oscar ceremony, traditionally held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, the Italian taste for elegance and attention to the details prevailed once again, and was officially recognized in front of a TV audience of around 1 billion people worldwide.
Italian costume designer Milena Canonero, age 69, won her fourth Academy Award for Best Costume Design on Sunday, February 22, for her masterful contribution to Wes Anderson’s movie Grand Budapest Hotel.
The critically acclaimed film was awarded four Oscars out of nine nominations, and all of them for those categories that can make the difference: Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, and Costume Design.
An extravagant comedy set in a luxury mountain hotel, located in the fictional republic of Zubrowka, in Europe, the film describes the youth of a lobby boy at the Grand Budapest and his friendship with the eccentric hotel’s concierge, Monsieur Gustave.
His elegant uniform, as well as the other stunning vintage costumes and accessories, dating back to the 1930s, were designed by Milena Canonero, a well-established and talented artist, who had worked with the filmmaker also in The Darjeeling Limited (2007).
From Turin to Hollywood, via London. After studying costume design and design history in Genoa, Milena Canonero moved to England and began her career in minor theater and film productions. As she continued to work for several opera stagings, her big-screen debut was with director Stanley Kubrick in masterpieces the likes of A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (Oscar in 1976), and Shining (1980).
The long-lasting and mutually beneficial collaboration was then followed by her participation in Francis Ford Coppola’s Cotton Club (1984) and The Godfather Part III (1990).
In those years, she also designed costumes for celebrated filmmakers Sidney Pollack (Out of Africa, 1985), Warren Beatty (Dick Tracy, 1990), and Hugh Hudson, whose film Chariots of Fire earned her another Oscar in 1982.
Her second to last win was more recent, in 2007, for her faithful rendering of the 18th fashion in Sofia Coppola’s historical drama Marie Antoniette.
This year’s competition was quite intense for Grand Budapest Hotel and Milena Canonero – matched against Inherent Vice, Into the Woods, Maleficent and Mr. Turner -, and she wanted to praise all the colleagues in her acceptance speech.
Regardless of any bad luck, the Italian community of Los Angeles had started celebrating the successful designer a few days prior to the Award ceremony, by honoring her with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Italian Cultural Institute, in the presence of representatives of the Italian Institutions and the film industry.
Just as everybody expected, Milena Canonero didn’t fail and added one more statuette to Italy’s collection.
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