Biography
This page uses content from the Jane Campion biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.
Jane Campion (born April 30, 1954 in Wellington, New Zealand) is an Academy Award-winning film maker. She is one of the most internationally successful New Zealand directors, although most of her work has been made in or financed by other countries, principally Australia – where she now lives – and the USA. Campion attended the Australian Film Television and Radio School early in its history, where she learned the craft that has resulted in a career that spans fourteen films as director, three as producer and eight as writer.
Her first short film, Peel (1982) won the Palme D'Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival and other awards followed for the shorts Passionless Moments (1983) and Girls Own Story (1984). Sweetie (1989) was her feature debut, and won international awards. Further recognition followed with An Angel at my Table (1990), a dramatised autobiography of the poet Janet Frame. International recognition followed with another Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1993 for The Piano, which won the best director award from the Australian Film Institute and an Oscar for best screenplay in 1994. She was the second woman ever to be nominated best director at the 66th Academy Awards.
Campion's work since that time has tended to polarize opinion. The Portrait of a Lady (1996), based on the Henry James novel, featured Nicole Kidman, John Malkovich, Barbara Hershey and Martin Donovan. Holy Smoke! (1999) teamed Campion again with Harvey Keitel, this time with Kate Winslet as the female lead. In the Cut (2003), an erotic thriller based on Susanna Moore's bestseller, provided Meg Ryan an opportunity to depart from her more familiar onscreen persona.
Campion was an executive producer for the 2006 documentary Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story.
Selected filmography
- In the Cut (2003) - based on the best-selling novel by Susanna Moore
- Holy Smoke! (1999)
- The Portrait of a Lady (1996) - based on the novel by Henry James
- The Piano (1993)
- An Angel at My Table (1990) - based on the autobiography by Janet Frame
- Sweetie (1989)
External links
New Zealand Film Makers
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