Jane Campion has made history as the first woman to be ever nominated twice for the Oscar Award for Best Direction. She has been nominated for The Power of the Dog starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-MchPhee in the lead roles.
Jane also won the prize for Best Direction at the Venice Film Festival for the same film and earned a nomination at the Directors Guild of America Awards.
The Power of the Dog is in the Oscars race this year with the highest number of nominations (12), including Best Picture and Best Music (Original Score).
Jane’s previous nomination was for 1993’s The Piano. Steven Spielberg took the Oscar that year for Schindler’s List, but Jane won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
When she was nominated for Best Direction for The Piano, Jane was only the second woman ever to be recognised in the category in all of history. (The first, Lina Wertmuller, died in December 2020.) In the years since The Piano, five other women have been nominated for direction, with two — Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) — winning the award.
Jane Campion (67) was also the first woman to win the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d’Or, for The Piano. The second — Julia Ducournau for Titane — won the prize in 2020.