Jane Campion – The First Female Director Who Got Nominated for the Oscars Twice

The New Zealand Director Jane Campion was nominated for the Oscars 2022 for her movie The Power of the Dog. With this, she became the first female director who got nominated for the Oscar awards twice. She was previously nominated for the 1993 film The Piano. She is also the first female filmmaker to receive the Palme d’Or award for the film The Piano. The Piano also won her the Best Original Screenplay Award for the 1993 Oscars.

Jane Campion is also known for directing the films An Angel at My Table (1990), Holy Smoke! (1998), and Bright Star (2009), as well as for co-creating the television series Top of the Lake (2013).

Her movie The Power of the Dog won the Silver Lion award for directing at the 78th Venice International Film Festival. The 2021 film The Power of the Dog, a western psychological drama movie, was highly praised for its direction and story. It features Benedict Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jesse Plemons, and Kirsten Dunst in it. The film had a limited theatrical release in November 2021 and was released to stream worldwide on Netflix on December 1, 2021.

The film received a total of 12 Oscar nominations in 2022 including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Score and Best Sound. It also received 7 nominations at the 79th Golden Globe Awards and had won the awards for the Best Motion Picture – Drama, The Best Supporting Actor, The Best Direction.

Interestingly in the 2022 Oscars also Jane is competing against the same director with whom she competed against in 1993 – Steven Spielberg. Steven was nominated for Best Director for Schindler’s List in 1993 and had won the award that year. This year he is nominated for the movie West Side Story.

The nominations of women directors have always been low at the Oscars. In its 94 years of history, only 7 female directors have been nominated for the best director awards and only 2 female directors have won the award yet. They were Kathryn Bigelow in 2009 and Chloe Zhao in 2021. 

Written BY:

-Poorna Krishnan