Jane Campion

Jane Campion is one of the most exciting and dynamic filmmakers to emerge from Australasia. Her films are visually sumptuous whether in black and white or colour, as well as complex, ambiguous and often funny. Narratives never turn out as expected, and characters behave in ways that that thwart societal stereotypes.

The Piano, her Palme d'Or and Oscar-winning feature, is listed in the U.S. National Society of Film Critics' list of '100 Essential Films' of all time, alongside Citizen Kane, The Godfather and Casablanca.

Campion was born in Wellington in 1954, daughter of theatrical doyens Richard and Edith Campion. She studied anthropology at Victoria University, then painting, before beginning studies in film at the Australian School of Film, Radio and Television.

Her short film Peel (1982), a study of domestic discipline produced while still a student, took the prize for best short film at the 1986 Cannes festival. That decade she worked mainly in Australia - with a series of shorts, plus tele-movie Two Friends (1986), a portrait of the complex friendship between two teenage girls. In 1989 Campion made her feature film debut with chalk and cheese sisters drama Sweetie, another tale of the suburban grotesque.

An Angel at My Table (1990) was originally produced as a television mini-series. The story was divided into sections echoing the three-part autobiography (To the Is-Land, An Angel at My Table and The Envoy from Mirror City) of author Janet Frame.

As a feature film, An Angel at my Table won numerous awards including the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. It established Jane Campion as a director to watch and launched the career of lead actor, Kerry Fox.

Campion's next feature, The Piano (1993) marked the point where Campion crossed from the arthouse into the mainstream; the film's box office success was especially undeniable in Europe. A brooding anti-romance about 19th century colonists in the emotional scenery of the New Zealand forest and coastline, The Piano received Academy Awards for performances by Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin, as well as for Campion's screenplay. Campion became the first woman director to win the Palme d'Or for Best Feature.

She subsequently directed Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich in an adaptation of Henry James' A Portrait of a Lady and later collaborated with her her filmmaker sister Anna on Holy Smoke, starring Harvey Keitel and Kate Winslet. 

Her depiction of strong female lead characters rebelling against stereotypical roles has attracted singular praise, particularly from feminist film critics, as have her story telling techniques: original and striking visual compositions, non-linear editing style and a narrative emphasis on open-ended meaning.

Campion revels in ambiguity and playing with what is unseen or unsaid, and her romance is romance with a rotten apple. In the Cut (2003) is a darkly erotic exploration of the relationship between a hardened cop (Mark Ruffalo) and a withdrawn writing professor (Meg Ryan). It polarised reception, with the LA Times wondering whether it "may be the most imperfect great movie of the year ... unquestionably the most ambitious and important film to come along in months ...".

In 2009 Bright Star, Campion's portrayal of poet John Keats' romance with neighbour Fanny Brawne debuted at Cannes to positive critical reviews. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave it four stars and found it one of the best of Campion's career. Bradshaw wrote that this "heartfelt film has a nobility of its own; it draws you irresistibly into its world".

When Bright Star opened in America in September 2009, veteran New York Times critic A.O Scott added to the acclaim, arguing that the film's “passages of extraordinary lyricism" were "balanced by a rough, energetic worldliness".

Today Campion enjoys an established reputation as a strong director who brings a specific female voice to commercially successful films.