Jane Campion is one of our most successful filmmakers at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. She has won the top prize for both short and feature films, the only Australasian filmmaker to do so. Campion was the first woman to win the Palme d’Or for Best Feature, for The Piano (1993). In 1986 she won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film for An Exercise in Discipline: Peel (1982, pictured) and had three films screen in Un Certain Regard – her student shorts A Girl’s Own Story (1983) and Passionless Moments (1983), and the ABC telemovie Two Friends (1986).
Campion also mentors other filmmakers who have shown at Cannes such as Christina Andreef (whose Soft Fruit screened during Critics’ Week in 2000) and novelist-turned-filmmaker Julia Leigh. 'Jane Campion presents’ headlines the trailer for Leigh’s Sleeping Beauty, selected to screen in the main competition at this year’s festival (which runs 11-22 May).
Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Campion studied at the Sydney College of the Arts and then the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. Her first feature Sweetie (1989) competed at Cannes, as did her last, Bright Star in 2009. She is soon to begin production on Top of the Lake, a television mini-series commissioned by the BBC. This production also marks her first collaboration with co-writer Gerard Lee since Passionless Moments (1983) and Sweetie (1989).
See also: Australia at Cannes rounds up all the Australian films screening at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, while Screen Australia provides an historical overview of Australian films at Cannes.
