Milena Canonero, the legendary Italian costume designer known for her collaborations with the likes of Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola, Warren Beatty and others,
will receive this year’s Vision Award at the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival.
She will receive the honor, presented by Ticinomoda, at Locarno78 on the night of Sunday, Aug. 10. During the festival, she will also introduce her most recent collaboration with Francis Ford Coppola, Megalopolis.
“Since making her debut as a costume designer on Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971), Milena Canonero has produced some of the most visionary costumes in film history and has shaped our collective imagination through the clothes we see on screen, using colorful fabrics and innovative cuts to draw out the essential natures of some of the most recognizable cinematic creations,” Locarno organizers said. “Take the Jazz Age tuxedos and gowns of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club (1984), the pre-revolutionary aristocratic ruffles in Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006), Tilda Swinton’s elaborate, Klimt-like costumes in Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), or the stylish dark looks of Catherine Deneuve and Davie Bowie in Tony Scott’s horror film The Hunger (1983). Or take Warren Beatty’s magnificently colorful Dick Tracy (1990), the memorable outfits of Sidney Pollack’s Out of Africa (1986), the western get-ups of Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers (2018), the iconic costumes of Kubrick’s The Shining (1980)… Or indeed, most recently, her interpretation of a postmodern Roman style in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis (2024) and her sixth collaboration with Wes Anderson on the ‘50s-set spy film The Phoenician Scheme (2025).”
Canonero has won four Academy Awards for best costume design, namely for Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975), Hugh Hudson’s Chariots of Fire (1981), Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, and Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, along with three BAFTAs, three Costume Designers Guild Awards, the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, and various other honors.
“Her interests and talent extend beyond costumes, having designed the sets as well as costumes for Barbet Schroeder’s Single White Female (1992) and Roman Polanski’s stage play of Amadeus (1999),” Locarno highlighted. “Canonero has also directed some shorts and commercials.”
Locarno’s Vision Award pays tribute to people “whose creative work has contributed to the renewal of the cinematographic imaginary and over the years has been given to masters of special effects, editors, sound designers, composers, musicians, cinematographers, and multidisciplinary artists.”
Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival, lauded Canonero as “a giant of the cinema and art of our times,” adding: “Like a Renaissance artist, she has combined the profound wisdom of craftsmanship with the potential of cinema, thus opening infinite spaces for human imagination and expression. The work of Milena Canonero, beginning with the costumes she designed for A Clockwork Orange, has forever changed the perception of the expressive possibilities of costume design and even beyond, reshaping our thinking about cinema in general.”
He concluded: “The lasting, universal impact of her art is testimony to a lively and joyful genius that is deeply anchored in Italy’s artistic traditions, becoming part of our collective heritage.”
The Locarno Film Festival takes place Aug. 6-16.