Diana Cilliers

Diana's early love for costume design led to her completion of a Bachelor Degree, majoring in Theatre Costume and Set Design at the University of Pretoria in 1977. She went on to work in theatre at The Cape Performing Arts Board and the State Theatre for 5 years working under very accomplished local and international costume designers like Peter Cazalet, Bruno Santini, Raymond Schoop and many others on opera, drama and ballet productions. The Film Industry was a natural progression for Diana and she started working in 1983 with acclaimed SA director Manie van Rensburg . She worked on various TV film productions for Manie including 'Verspeelde Lente' and 'Anna' which cemented her love for period costume and assisting actors in creating characters with the help of their clothing. During the 1980's and early 90's she worked on South African films shot outside of South Africa due to the political situation, like 'Bopha' directed by Morgan Freeman starring Danny Glover and Alfre Woodard. She has designed the costumes for most of South African director Katinka Heyn's films including 'Paljas', 'Klara Viljee' and the recently completed film 'Die Wonderwerker' on a part of the life of SA author Eugene Marais. She was also consulting designer on the award winning Afrikaans Film 'Faan se Trein', directed by Koos Roets. Diana has designed costumes for over a hundred feature films as well as numerous television productions and commercials over the years. Her credits include the Oscar nominated film 'District 9' directed by Neil Blomkamp, 'Judge Dredd', 'Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom' starring Idris Elba and Naomi Harris, 'Boesman and Lena' starring Danny Glover and Angela Basset, 'Red Dust' directed by Oscar nominated Tom Hooper, starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Eijiofor, 'Disgrace', based on the novel by Nobel Prize winning author JM Coetzee starring John Malkovich and Jessica Haines,' Women in Love' starring Rosamunde Pike and Joseph Mawle and the recently completed BBC Film' The Girl' starring Sienna Miller, Toby Jones, Imelda Staunton and Penelope Wilton. She was nominated for a Canadian Gemini for the award winning series 'Human Cargo' in 2004 and won the SAFTA Golden Horn award for Best Costumes for the feature film 'Goodbye Bafana'. She was nominated a second time for the SAFTA Golden Horn Award for the film 'Themba' in 2010. Diana was nominated for a Primetime Emmy 2013 for Best Costume Design for her work on the HBO TV Film 'The Girl' and was awarded the WIFTS (Women in International Television and Film Showcase) Award for Costume Design, 2013 for her body of work in Film and Television. Diana owns Theatre and Film Costume Workshop which she started in Johannesburg in 1985 and relocated to Cape Town in 1992. This studio is located in the artistic hub of Woodstock in Cape Town where a variety of talented artisans and crafts people join forces to create the costumes and characters for each film. Throughout her career Diana has been passionate about creating very specific characters with the help of clothing be it, futuristic, period or contemporary. Paintings and the art world is often her inspiration for characters and she has taken this passion further and enrolled for a Master of Fine Arts degree at UCT's Michaelis School of Fine Art . The subject of her thesis is 'The Emotional Language of Clothing' focusing on Africa and the Diaspora. She recently completed Neil Blomkamp's latest film 'Chappie' starring Sharlto Copley,Hugh Jackman, Dev Patel and Sigourney Weaver as well as SA counter culture group Die Antwoord and 'The Giver' starring Jeff Bridges, Meryl Streep, Katie Holmes and Alexander Skarsgaard.