# Milena Canonero

Milena Canonero OMRI (born 13 July 1946) is an Italian costume designer, production designer, and film producer. In a career spanning over five decades, she is recognized for her prolific work across stage and screen. She has received numerous accolades, including four Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards, and two Costume Designers Guild Awards. She has been the recipient of various honorary awards, including the Honorary Golden Bear in 2017.
Canonero is best known for her collaborations with directors Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, and Wes Anderson. She has received nine nominations for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design and has won four times for Barry Lyndon (1975), Chariots of Fire (1981), Marie Antoinette (2006), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).

## Early life and education

Canonero was born in Turin, Italy. She attended university in Genoa, studying fashion, period design, and art history before moving to England in the late 1960s to complete her studies. She designed for friends' boutiques in London and began assisting in commercials, meeting many filmmakers along the way, including director Hugh Hudson. He gave Canonero her first break on his short film, which was shot on location in Sicily. She was involved in all aspects of the production and found the entire process captivating. By chance, Canonero was also invited to watch Stanley Kubrick shoot parts of the landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and the director asked her to collaborate with him on his next feature film.

## Career

Canonero received her first major screen credits for designing costumes for Kubrick's dystopian classic A Clockwork Orange (1971). She created an instantly recognizable character's wardrobe that perfectly captures the film's discourse on class, money, and power through provoking aesthetics, which has since become an enduring inspiration for fashion icons and designers. Canonero continued her professional relationship with the director on the epic period drama Barry Lyndon (1975). During an extensive preproduction period, she and Swedish costume designer Ulla-Britt Söderlund examined original 18th-century attire at London's Victoria and Albert Museum and copied patterns from the collection to produce authentic-looking film garments. They also drew inspiration from period-defining art, including portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds, genre paintings by Jean Siméon Chardin, as well as the bawdy paintings by William Hogarth, among others. For their work in the film, Canonero and Söderlund won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. Then film director George Lucas approached her to design costumes for his space opera Star Wars (1977), an offer she eventually turned down and later considered the biggest missed opportunity of her career. Canonero worked with Kubrick once again on the cult psychological horror The Shining (1980). She won her second Academy Award for another collaboration with Hudson, this time on his iconic sports drama Chariots of Fire (1981), the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics. She superbly interpreted the 1920s English tweeds, blazers, and college garb to the extent of inspiring 1980s fashion trends; such great success led to an offer for Canonero to create a clothing line for men's-wear manufacturer Norman Hilton, for which she received a special Coty Award.
Canonero’s next major film was Sydney Pollack's Out of Africa (1985), based on Danish author Karen Blixen's autobiographical memoir of the same name about her decade-long experiences in colonial Kenya starting just before the outbreak of World War I. Canonero faced a formidable challenge when tasked in a strict three-month term to research, design, and produce hundreds of costumes appropriate for a vast ensemble of characters that includes African natives, white hunters, and European nobility. It took her on an intense journey everywhere, from the New York Public Library to the various museums and costume houses across England and Italy, and from the Blixen’s home in Denmark to Africa, where she met anthropologist Richard Leakey, who consulted her on less known aspects of African fashion in the 1910s, especially those regarding the ingenious groups.
Beside her well-established screen career, Canonero is known for creating costumes for stage. She frequently collaborated with director Otto Schenk on his numerous opera productions. Those include Il trittico (Vienna State Opera, 1979), As You Like It (Salzburg Festival, 1980), Die Fledermaus (Vienna State Opera, 1980), Andrea Chénier (Vienna State Opera, 1981), and Arabella (Metropolitan Opera, 1983). She also worked with director Luc Bondy on such productions as Tosca (Metropolitan Opera, 2009) and Helena (Burgtheater, 2010).
On television, Canonero designed costumes for crime drama series Miami Vice in the 1980s.
In 2001, Canonero received the Career Achievement Award in Film from the Costume Designers Guild. She won her third Oscar for Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006).
Canonero received her fourth Academy Award for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), directed by Wes Anderson. This marked her third collaboration with the director, as they had previously worked together on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) and The Darjeeling Limited (2007).

## Personal life

Canonero is married to actor Marshall Bell, and they live in West Hollywood, California.

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1971 | A Clockwork Orange | Stanley Kubrick | |
| 1975 | Barry Lyndon | Stanley Kubrick | with Ulla-Britt Söderlund |
| 1977 | The Disappearance | Stuart Cooper | |
| 1978 | Midnight Express | Alan Parker | |
| 1980 | The Shining | Stanley Kubrick | |
| 1981 | Chariots of Fire | Hugh Hudson | |
| 1983 | The Hunger | Tony Scott | |
| 1984 | Give My Regards to Broad Street | Peter Webb | |
| 1984 | The Cotton Club | Francis Ford Coppola | |
| 1985 | Out of Africa | Sydney Pollack | |
| 1987 | Good Morning, Babylon | Paolo Taviani Vittorio Taviani | Associate producer only |
| 1987 | Barfly | Barbet Schroeder | |
| 1988 | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | Francis Ford Coppola | |
| 1989 | Lost Angels | Hugh Hudson | Costume design consultant only aka The Road Home |
| 1990 | The Bachelor | Roberto Faenza | with Alberto Verso |
| 1990 | Dick Tracy | Warren Beatty | |
| 1990 | Reversal of Fortune | Barbet Schroeder | Costume consultant only |
| 1990 | The Godfather Part III | Francis Ford Coppola | |
| 1992 | Single White Female | Barbet Schroeder | Also production designer |
| 1992 | Damage | Louis Malle | |
| 1994 | Only You | Norman Jewison | |
| 1994 | Love Affair | Glenn Gordon Caron | |
| 1994 | Camilla | Deepa Mehta | |
| 1994 | Death and the Maiden | Roman Polanski | |
| 1998 | Bulworth | Warren Beatty | |
| 1999 | Titus | Julie Taymor | |
| 2001 | The Affair of the Necklace | Charles Shyer | |
| 2002 | Solaris | Steven Soderbergh | |
| 2004 | Eros | Steven Soderbergh | Segment: "Equilibrium" |
| 2004 | Ocean's Twelve | Steven Soderbergh | |
| 2004 | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | Wes Anderson | |
| 2006 | Marie Antoinette | Sofia Coppola | |
| 2006 | Belle Toujours | Manoel de Oliveira | |
| 2007 | Hotel Chevalier | Wes Anderson | Short film acts as a prologue to The Darjeeling Limited |
| 2007 | The Darjeeling Limited | Wes Anderson | |
| 2007 | I Viceré | Roberto Faenza | |
| 2010 | The Wolfman | Joe Johnston | |
| 2011 | Carnage | Roman Polanski | |
| 2011 | Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You | Roberto Faenza | Producer only |
| 2013 | Romeo & Juliet | Carlo Carlei | Co-producer only |
| 2013 | Something Good | Luca Barbareschi | |
| 2013 | Castello Cavalcanti | Wes Anderson | Short film |
| 2014 | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Wes Anderson | |
| 2016 | Paris Can Wait | Eleanor Coppola | |
| 2018 | The Sisters Brothers | Jacques Audiard | |
| 2021 | The French Dispatch | Wes Anderson | |
| 2022 | Hill of Vision | Roberto Faenza | Also producer Co-designed with Bojana Nikitovic |
| 2023 | Asteroid City | Wes Anderson | |
| 2024 | Megalopolis | Francis Ford Coppola | |

## Awards and nominations
### Major associations

Academy Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 1975 | Best Costume Design | Barry Lyndon | Won |
| 1981 | Best Costume Design | Chariots of Fire | Won |
| 1985 | Best Costume Design | Out of Africa | Nominated |
| 1988 | Best Costume Design | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | Nominated |
| 1990 | Best Costume Design | Dick Tracy | Nominated |
| 1999 | Best Costume Design | Titus | Nominated |
| 2001 | Best Costume Design | The Affair of the Necklace | Nominated |
| 2006 | Best Costume Design | Marie Antoinette | Won |
| 2014 | Best Costume Design | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Won |
BAFTA Awards
| Year | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| British Academy Film Awards |||||
| 1975 | Best Costume Design | Barry Lyndon | Nominated |
| 1981 | Best Costume Design | Chariots of Fire | Won |
| 1985 | Best Costume Design | The Cotton Club | Won |
| 1986 | Best Costume Design | Out of Africa | Nominated |
| 1990 | Best Costume Design | Dick Tracy | Nominated |
| 2006 | Best Costume Design | Marie Antoinette | Nominated |
| 2014 | Best Costume Design | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Won |
| 2021 | Best Costume Design | The French Dispatch | Nominated |

### Miscellaneous awards

List of Milena Canonero other awards and nominations :
| Award | Year | Category | Title | Result |
| Berlin International Film Festival | 2017 | Honorary Golden Bear | — | Honored |
| César Awards | 2018 | Best Costume Design | The Sisters Brothers | Nominated |
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | 2023 | Best Costume Design | Asteroid City | Nominated |
| Ciak d'oro | 1990 | Best Costume Design | The Bachelor | Nominated |
| Ciak d'oro | 2008 | Best Costume Design | I Viceré | Nominated |
| Costume Designers Guild Awards | 2000 | Career Achievement Award | — | Honored |
| Costume Designers Guild Awards | 2004 | Excellence in Contemporary Film | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | Won |
| Costume Designers Guild Awards | 2004 | Excellence in Contemporary Film | Ocean's Twelve | Nominated |
| Costume Designers Guild Awards | 2006 | Excellence in Period Film | Marie Antoinette | Nominated |
| Costume Designers Guild Awards | 2014 | Excellence in Period Film | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Won |
| Costume Designers Guild Awards | 2016 | Excellence in Short Form Design | H&M: "Come Together" | Nominated |
| Coty Awards | 1984 | Special Award for tailored clothing | — | Honored |
| Critics' Choice Movie Awards | 2014 | Best Costume Design | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Won |
| David di Donatello Awards | 1990 | Best Costumes | The Bachelor | Nominated |
| David di Donatello Awards | 2008 | Best Costumes | I Viceré | Won |
| Hollywood Film Awards | 2014 | Hollywood Costume Design Award | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Won |
| Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards | 1999 | Best Costume Design | Titus | Nominated |
| Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards | 2006 | Best Costume Design | Marie Antoinette | Won |
| Nastro d'Argento Awards | 1989 | Best Costume Design | Tucker: The Man and His Dream | Nominated |
| Nastro d'Argento Awards | 1991 | Best Costume Design | The Bachelor | Nominated |
| Nastro d'Argento Awards | 2007 | Best Costume Design | Marie Antoinette | Won |
| Nastro d'Argento Awards | 2008 | Best Costume Design | I Viceré | Won |
| Nastro d'Argento Awards | 2012 | Best Producer | Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You | Nominated |
| Nastro d'Argento Awards | 2014 | Best Costume Design | The Grand Budapest Hotel and Something Good | Won |
| Online Film Critics Society Awards | 2021 | Best Costume Design | The French Dispatch | Nominated |
| Online Film Critics Society Awards | 2023 | Best Costume Design | Asteroid City | Nominated |
| Rodeo Drive Walk of Style | 2006 | Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Award | — | Honored |
| Satellite Awards | 1999 | Best Costume Design | Titus | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | 2001 | Best Costume Design | The Affair of the Necklace | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | 2006 | Best Costume Design | Marie Antoinette | Nominated |
| Satellite Awards | 2014 | Best Costume Design | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Won |
| Saturn Awards | 1983 | Best Costume Design | The Hunger | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards | 1989/90 | Best Costume Design | Dick Tracy | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards | 2010 | Best Costume Design | The Wolfman | Nominated |
| Seattle Film Critics Society Awards | 2014 | Best Costume Design | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Won |

## Other honours

* Italy - Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on 21 December 2015.