Announcing its pick on Thursday, the judging panel for the Metod Badjura Award praised Milavec's work as being priceless for generations of future production designers.

"With the Metod Badjura Award for lifetime achievement, the Slovenian filmmakers are expressing their respect to Dušan Milavec's world-class creativity."

The judges lauded Milavec's "exceptional sensitivity for all things visual" and his "aesthetic and craftsman's skill".

In his long and illustrious career, Milavec has worked with a great number of Slovenian and foreign film directors, most recently with Damjan Kozole on his thriller Nightlife.

The list of films he worked on is long, and includes many award winners. He was part of the crew of No Man's Land, Danis Tanović's war drama which won the 2002 Oscar for foreign film.

Milavec will accept the latest award, named after screenwriter, director and cameraman Metod Badjura (1896-1971), at the opening ceremony of the Festival of Slovenian Film in Portorož on 13 September.

On the occasion, he will be paid tribute with a special screening of the 1987 feature film "Šumanović, komedija umetnika", and an exhibition on his work.

Running between 13 and 18 September, the 19th Festival of Slovenian Film will showcase a total of 98 films, including 52 in the running for awards, 10 of which features.