It was an Academy Awards like no other, and that’s on top of the infamous slap.
Dame Jane Campion won best director for The Power of the Dog.
She’s the first woman to be nominated twice for the award and the second woman to have ever won.
The 2022 Oscars wasn’t her first rodeo. Rewind three decades ago and she won the best screenplay for The Piano and was nominated for best director for the feature film.
She then went on to become the first woman to win the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993.
Dame Jane was born into a family immersed in theatre. Her father Richard Campion was a theatre director and her mother, Edith Campion was an actress.
She was raised in Wellington, but instead of following her parents' footsteps she went to Victoria University and got a degree in anthropology. Then, she jetted off to Venice, London, and Sydney – where she found her passion for film making.
She went on to work with strong female leads like Kate Winslet and Nicole Kidman. Her films often focused on the plight of women.
“I was hoping this big win and increase of attention would lead people to look at her other work because some of them were really unfairly assessed at the time of their release because mainstream criticism and mainstream film culture were male dominated. They’ve kind of been reconsidered in light of “me too” and a broader awareness I guess in pop culture of women’s inequality,” says Missy Molloy, a senior lecturer in film at Victoria University.
After a hiatus from cinema for more than a decade, her grand comeback with The Power of the Dog has made history once again.
“I love the way Jane has completely diverted the western. It’s audacious, it’s adventurous, it’s very confident film making, and there is no other film maker in the world who could’ve made it,” says Dame Gaylene Preston.
FEMALE DIRECTORS
She goes on to outline the struggles female directors have to get funding to make such big budget movies.
“Somehow creatively, women aren't trusted with money so we can make the low budget films but actually getting the resourcing to cut through the larger films, that’s where it’s at. This makes The Power of the Dog even more of a triumph, what makes Jane a real triumph,” says Dame Gaylene.
“She actually attained a level of mainstream success with a very unconventional vision which is another facet that's exciting. Usually only male directors have that opportunity. It has broken the doors that make that possible for other women,” says Molloy.
Dame Jane’s win is a small step towards change in an industry that remains highly male dominated.
Both Molloy and Preston agree that over the decades there hasn’t been much improvement with the percentage of women behind the lens, and that needs to change.
For film students, her win is inspiring.
“It sets a very high standard for us and shows us we're able to reach it, especially as Kiwis and as women,” says Victoria University film student Jess Hockey.
“It’s that sort of representation on screen that actually reflects what’s going on in society so to be able to get those stories out is highly important,” she says.
“First seeing Taika win and now Jane Campion there’s definitely, like, well there is a space for us, there is a space for people to go forth and put our art into the world,” says Georgia Ah Kuoi, another film student at Victoria University.
“I think Jane Campion’s win is amazing but there’s still a lot of work to be done, there’s still a lot of wāhine out there who are doing just as much work as she is and I think it’s time we start recognising them too,” says Georgia.
For veteran film maker Dame Gaylene, she says her "heart swells with pride" at Dame Jane’s recognition but the award for her success comes after many years and the industry continues to move slowly towards diversity.
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