Dante Ferretti

Who is Dante Ferretti?

Dante Ferretti is an Italian production designer, art director and costume designer for films.

In his career, Ferretti has worked with many great directors, both American and Italian, such as Pier Paolo Pasolini, Federico Fellini, Terry Gilliam, Franco Zeffirelli, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Anthony Minghella, and Tim Burton. He frequently collaborates with his wife, set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo.

Ferretti was a protégé of Federico Fellini, and worked under him for five films. He also had a five-film collaboration with Pier Paolo Pasolini and later developed a very close professional relationship with Martin Scorsese, designing seven of his last eight movies.

In 2008, he designed the set for Howard Shore's opera The Fly, directed by David Cronenberg, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

Ferretti won three Academy Awards for Best Art Direction for The Aviator, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Hugo. He had seven previous nominations. In addition, he was nominated for Best Costume Design for Kundun. He has also won three BAFTA Awards.

In 2012, he designed the decor for restaurant Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto on Manhattan's Upper East Side, consisting of a theatrical dining room combining faux-Roman statues and peeling-paint Pompeii-like frescos with recessed spotlights, red walls, and modern white leather armchairs.