Ulla-Britt Söderlund

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Ulla-Britt Söderlund
Born(1943-08-12)August 12, 1943
Växjö, Sweden
DiedJuly 21, 1985(1985-07-21) (aged 41)
Copenhagen, Denmark
OccupationCostume designer
Years active1966–1982

Ulla-Britt Söderlund (August 12, 1943 – July 21, 1985) was a Swedish costume designer who worked on some twenty screen productions in Sweden, Denmark, and England throughout her career. She and fellow costume designer Milena Canonero won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design for their work on Stanley Kubrick's period drama film Barry Lyndon (1975).

Career[edit]

Söderlund began her career creating the costumes for various Danish-Swedish screen co-productions. Her first major film credit was in Henning Carlsen's 1966 black-and-white drama Hunger, which was based on Knut Hamsun's 1890 novel of the same name. She again worked with Carlsen the following year, this time on the romantic comedy People Meet and Sweet Music Fills the Heart, which was an adaptation of Jens August Schade's 1944 novel. She then designed costumes for Mai Zetterling's 1968 dramatic adaptations, Doctor Glas and The Girls.

In the following years, Söderlund collaborated with many renowned directors, such as Gabriel Axel, Jan Troell, Stanley Kubrick, and Hans Alfredson, among others. In particular, her meticulous work on Troell's 1971 historical drama The Emigrants as well as its 1972 sequel, The New Land, garnered a great deal of attention and launched her to international prominence. Along with other career prospects, she and Milena Canonero worked together on the authentic 18th-century wardrobes for Kubrick's 1975 epic Barry Lyndon. That ambitious project required a year and a half of preparing the costumes, studying paintings, and reading books to reproduce garments for the screen. Their remarkable efforts received critical and audience admiration, ultimately winning them the Academy Award for Best Costume Design.

In the late 1970s, Söderlund worked on the acclaimed Danish television series Matador. Among her last notable film credits was designing the wardrobe for Alfredson's 1982 drama film, The Simple-Minded Murder.

Awards and nominations[edit]

Association Year Category Work Result Ref.
Academy Awards 1976 Best Costume Design Barry Lyndon Won [1]
BAFTA Film Awards 1976 Best Costume Design Nominated [2]

Illness and death[edit]

Söderlund died of cancer on 21 July 1985. She was diagnosed with the disease in the spring of that year.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "The 48th Academy Awards (1976) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on November 9, 2014. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  2. ^ "The 29th British Academy Film Awards (1976) Nominees and Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Archived from the original on April 29, 2014. Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  3. ^ https://www.smp.se/lordag/ulla-britt-fran-vaxjo-fick-kla-filmens-stjarnor/ Swedish article on her life and death, and interview with her son from 2016.

External links[edit]