Jane Campion

Cast · Director · Writer

Born

April 30, 1954 · Wellington, New Zealand

“I think that the romantic impulse is in all of us and that sometimes we live it for a short time, but it's not part of a sensible way of living. It's a heroic path and it generally ends dangerously. I treasure it in the sense that I believe it's a path of great courage. It can also be the path of the foolhardy and the compulsive.” Director, screenwriter and producer. Jane Campion grew up in a family of artists linked to the theater but when it came to choosing her vocation she decided to make her way in Anthropology and Fine Arts; with a combined training between Victoria University in Wellington, the Chelsea Art School in London and the Sydney College of the Arts, where she finished her BA in Painting. Avid, in 1980 she shot her first short film "Tissues" and a year later she began her studies at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School where she shot several short films, among them "Peel" (1982), winner of the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival. After graduating in 1984 he made his first feature film for television "Two Friends" (1986) and three years later he had his first theatrical release with the black comedy "Sweetie", winner of the Independent Spirit Awards for Best Foreign Film. In 1993, with "The Piano" she became the first director to win the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, a film for which she also won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Director, an award she later won with "The Power of the Dog" in 2022. Campion is a versatile and ambitious director, unafraid to try different registers, genres, idiosyncrasies or periods, giving us a filmography that bears witness to her broad training and sources of influence.