Costume and set designers from around the world will be the stars of what organisers hope will be a groundbreaking cinema convention to be held in Italy next year.
The convention will be held in Benevento near Naples in April 2008 in a bid to raise the profile of these crucial aspects of filmmaking, said the Italian association of production and costume designers, ASC.
ASC stressed that the convention would be the first of its kind in Europe and would bring together Italian and foreign big-name designers for four days of debate, exhibitions and film screenings.
The convention will also coincide with the ASC's 30th anniversary.
Production designer Lorenzo Baraldi, who was awarded at the Venice Film Festival on Tuesday for his work on Mario Monicelli's last film Le Rose del Deserto (The Roses of the Desert), praised the initiative, which was announced on the sidelines of the lagoon city's cinema fest.
"Costume and production designers need greater visibility," said Baraldi, who provided the sets of the 1994 Oscar-winning film Il Postino (The Postman).
"Clothes and sets are a fundamental part of a film's success and the filmmaking process. We are the director's main collaborators," he said.
Italy excels in the fields of costume and set design, producing a string of internationally acclaimed designers of the likes of Danilo Donati, Maurizio Millenotti, Umberto Tirelli, Piero Tosi, Milena Canonera, Gabriella Pescucci and Dante Ferretti.
Canonera, Pescucci, Tosi and Ferretti are all expected to attend next year's convention.
Canonera clinched her third Oscar this year for her costumes in Sophia Coppola's lavish period film Marie Antoniette.
The designer, who has been nominated five times, is best known for her work with Stanley Kubrick and won her first Oscar in 1976 for the director's period piece Barry Lyndon.
Pescucci won an Oscar for her costumes in Martin Scorsese's 1993 The Age of Innocence and was nominated again in 2005 for her work on Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Piero Tosi is another legendary name in the film costume industry. The 80-year-old veteran has been nominated five times for an Oscar, including for his work on Luchino Visconti's 1971 masterpiece Death in Venice.
Production designer Ferretti, meanwhile, won his first Oscar in 2005 on his eighth attempt with Martin Scorsese's blockbuster The Aviator.
Ferretti is a long-time collaborator of Scorsese and won nominations for his work on three of the Hollywood director's other films: The Gangs of New York, Kundun and The Age of Innocence.
