Jane Campion, ‘Child of Cannes’, Announces Festival Winners

NZ Film Director Jane Campion headed up the Short Film and Cinefoundation Jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Campion and her jurors awarded the Best Short Film Palme d’or to Safe, directed by South Korea’s Byoung-Gon Moon. Safe portrays a female university student who works part time at a money exchange counter in a gaming room. The story unravels as she secretly pockets some of the money people exchange in order to pay back money she had received in advance, according to South Korea’s Kyunghyang Shinmun newspaper. Needle, directed by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh from the School of Art Institute of Chicago, received the Cinefoundation Award from Campion and the jury. This is given to first and second time student filmmakers. Needle is a coming-of-age drama centering on a young girl who is going to get her ears pierced but a quarrel between her parents overwhelms the situation, according to Variety. “Needles got beautiful precision and the most exciting thing about it is that I can feel a very unique flavor to this filmmaker’s voice. It’s got subtle observations and it’s also very modern,” Jane Campion told Variety. Campion’s choice as Head Juror of the Cinefoundation and Short Film Jury was great honour for her, and for New Zealand. The Cannes website says of her that she “has attracted critical acclaim since the very beginning of her film career…Her work, which is dominated by the presence of fascinating women in search of their identity, [and] comes in a variety of styles. Gilles Jacob, president of the Festival de Cannes and the Cinéfondation, had no hesitation in picking Campion to head a Cannes jury. “Jane is a child of Cannes. I selected her first three short films for the Festival, because I liked her style and consistency. Naively perverse young girls, teens closed in around their solitude, and women mulling over desires and regrets: Jane’s is a passionate universe that she firmly holds in check as she draws these intricate group portraits. I am delighted that the love story between Lady Jane and the Festival continues”, he said. Jane Campion is no stranger to Cannes. She is the only female director to have won the coveted Palme d’or for Best Film, which she did in 1993 with The Piano. In 1986 Campion won the short film Palme d’or for Peel.