JANE CAMPION | MIND THE GAP AWARD

Throughout her career, Jane Campion has been a groundbreaker. Not just because in 1993 she was the first director who’s a woman to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for The Piano. And not just because, also for The Piano, she was the second female director to receive a Best Director Academy Award® nomination (we are now up to 7 nominations and two wins, after 93 years), winning for Best Original Screenplay that same year. She’s also a groundbreaker because she is truly an artist, whose career has been uncompromisingly on her own terms. From the estimable talent that revealed itself in her early shorts (Peel, Passionless Moments, A Girl’s Own Story), Campion has distinguished herself with singular commitment to her own distinct sensibility. Her work embraces people who may be a little oddball, outsider, eccentric (An Angel At My Table, Sweetie, The Piano), whose lives may reveal some kind of subversiveness (In the Cut) or spiritual quandary (Holy Smoke!). She upped the ante in her foray into episodic storytelling (Top of the Lake), and now returns with a new feature, The Power of the Dog, retaining a beautiful signature sense of cinema craft, and proving again she’s among most original and compelling filmmakers today. It’s no wonder she is held in such esteem; no wonder she continues to be a role model for so many. She’s one of the greats. —Zoë Elton