Oscar 2022: Jane Campion the story of the only director nominated

The 94th edition of the Oscars is just a few days away and with it the euphoria for the most important award in the seventh art in the world has generated great interest. One of the most important and coveted categories is “Best Director” and this year, despite the great social revolution that begins to do justice to women in various cultural, political and even labor spheres, there is only one woman nominated in 2022.

Jane Campion, who is the favorite to win the statuette, is competing for the Academy Award thanks to her work in El Poder Del Perro, the western that could once and for all give Netflix - the world's largest streaming platform - its first triumph in the premier category of the ceremony. Despite these good predictions, her triumph would not only represent another element in her resume, but also the possibility of becoming the third woman to win that award in her entire history.

The life story of this director has quickly become a topic of interest in social networks and the media, not only because she is the potential winner, but also because she is a great banner in the fight for equity of nominations within the Oscars that have been criticized in recent years for the lack of female spaces inside of the main categories, with “Best Management” being the most requested to change.

Elizabeth Jane Campion was born on April 30, 1954 in Wellington, New Zealand, and under the livelihood that her parents generated with a business within the footwear industry she decided to study anthropology at Victoria University in Wellington in 1975. After traveling through Europe for a year and studying painting at the Chelsea School of the Arts in London, Campion moved to Australia, where he completed a degree in painting at the Sydney School of the Arts at the University of Sydney in 1979.

As a brief account of his romantic life and the family he has formed, in 1992 Campion married Colin David Englert. Their first child, Jasper, died at 12 days of age, but in 1994, their daughter Alice Englert was born, who is dedicated to acting. Jane and Colin divorced in 2001.

In his professional career within the world of the seventh art, his first short film, Peel (1982) won the Palme d'Or for best short film at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, but international recognition came to him with his film The Piano (1993). With this film he won at the same festival as well as the Australian Film Institute's Best Director Award and the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 1994.

Her career in film already has a precedent of the conquest of women in the world of film directing, since she was the second director nominated for the Oscar for best direction in the history of the Academy. In 1993, she became the first woman to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, a milestone that was not repeated until 2021, when Julia Ducournau received her solo for her second feature film, Titane.

In 1996 he directed the film Portrait Of A Lady, based on the novel by Henry James, and starring Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey and Martin Donovan. Holy Smoke (1999) reunited Champion with Harvey Keitel, this time with the female lead role of Kate Winslet. In the Cut (2003), an erotic thriller based on the bestselling writer Susanna Moore, provided Meg Ryan with the opportunity to get rid of the roles of family cinema.

Outside the cinema, Jane was the executive producer of the documentary Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story (2006), but in 2009, she released Bright Star, a film that marks her return to romanticism in the purest style of The Piano. It tells the love story of poets John Keats and Fanny Brawne.

In 2019 her film El Piano was chosen as the best film of all time directed by a woman, according to a survey of film experts organized by the BBC, adding to another of the great triumphs for her and women in the entertainment industry who have also listed it as one of the leading pioneers in cinema and a figure to be followed by the revolution within spaces that were previously considered only for “men”.

His complete list of appearances is not only in films but also in short films such as: The Lady Bug (segment of the anthology film To Each His Own Cinema) in 2007, The Water Diary (segment of the anthology film 8) in 2016, After Hours in 1984, Peel: An Exercise in Discipline in 1982 or Mishaps of Seduction and Conquest in 1981.

Television is another platform where he has worked with great success and proving that his versatility when it comes to working is one of his greatest qualities, as this has allowed him to carry out projects such as: 2017 Top of the Lake: China Girl (TV miniseries, co-directed with Ariel Kleiman), Top of the Lake (miniseries by TV, co-directed with Garth Davis), Two Friends (TV movie) and Dancing Daze (TV series, episode 1).

The Power of the Dog (The Power of the Dog) is a self-written and directed western drama film based on Thomas Savage's 1967 novel of the same name. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee. This film leads with 12 nominations at the 94th Oscar Awards, including Best Film.

Twelve years passed between the premiere of Bright Star and The Power of the Dog. Luckily, critics, audiences and industry have enthusiastically received the return of a director in style, with which the nomination of Jane Campion could be added to Chloé Zhao and Kathryn Bigelow as the only women to win an Oscar.

Only seven women have been nominated for Best Director: Lina Wertmüller for Pasqualino Settebellezze (1976), Jane Campion for The Piano (1993) - yes this is her second nomination -, Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003), Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2009), Greta Gerwig for Bird Lady (2017), Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman (2020) and Chloé Zhao for Nomads Land (2020); of these, only Bigelow and Zhao won the statuette.

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