Giant of Cinema Jane Campion Wins in Venice

New Zealand’s Jane Campion has “underlined her status as one of the leading film-makers of her generation, taking home the best director trophy at the Venice Film Festival”, AFP reports.

The Power of the Dog, an emotionally complex tale about feuding brothers on a 1920s Montana ranch, was Wellington-born Campion’s first film in more than a decade and won immediate acclaim from critics.

Benedict Cumberbatch, who stars in her new film, told reporters she was a “key icon” of the women’s movement.

“She’s a great filmmaker and a very powerful woman in our industry. She handles it all so adeptly, and she’s so ridiculously humble about it,” Cumberbatch said in Venice.

Campion was already a major figure in the history of cinema as the first woman to win a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, for The Piano, and only the second ever nominated for a directing Oscar.

Original article by AFP, France 24, September 11, 2021.