THE POWER OF THE DOG

Tribute: 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. But she’s also a groundbreaker as a filmmaker because she is truly an artist, one whose career has been uncompromisingly on her own terms, rooted in her own sensibilities. There is a nature, drive, and vision that always makes her films so distinctive. From the estimable talent that revealed itself in her early shorts (Peel, Passionless Moments, A Girl’s Own Story), she began a journey through life and art that is distinguished by a singular commitment to a sensibility that is distinctively Campion-esque. 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). All of Campion’s work is rendered with a beautiful sense of the art and craft of filmmaking, notable cinematography, and music, tempered through the sensibility of the artist she is. 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.