In addition to being just a great filmmaker, Jane Campion is a trailblazer. People may have forgotten that she is the first woman to win the top prize at Cannes, the Palme d’Or. So, she knows a bit about how women are treated in this business. When she says it’s an “exciting” time to be a female filmmaker, we should listen. 

Speaking at the Locarno Film Festival (via Deadline), Jane Campion talked about the current state of filmmaking as it relates to being a female filmmaker.

Continue reading Jane Campion Says ‘Barbie’ Success Means “Women Can Be Trusted With Money, Finally” at The Playlist.

When one thinks of auteur-driven Peak TV in the streaming age, the first shows that generally come to mind are “House Of Cards” (2013) with David Fincher at the helm (at least for the first few eps), “True Detective” (2014) by director Cary Fukunaga, and Steven Soderbergh’s “The Knick” (2014). Crucial to the mix, but sometimes missing in that conversation, is Jane Campion’s “Top Of The Lake” starring Elisabeth Moss, which debuted in 2013, right at the beginning of this new second golden age of TV.

Continue reading Elisabeth Moss Says “‘Top Of The Lake’ Has More To Say” & Wants To Reunite With Jane Campion For Season 3 at The Playlist.

So what film will win the coveted Golden Lion at the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival this year? Well, there’s no front-runner right now because festival director Albert Barbera hasn’t even anvnounced the in-competition line-up yet. But now we know who will choose the winners alongside jury head Damien Chazelle. And that list boasts filmmakers who’ve done very well for themselves on the Lido the past couple of years.

Continue reading Venice 2023: Jane Campion, Martin McDonagh, Laura Poitras & More Join Damien Chazelle On Festival’s Jury at The Playlist.

Netflix isn’t having a really great 2022, so far. The company has been hampered by slow growth and a stock valuation that greatly declined. And because of this, folks in Hollywood are wondering what’s going to happen next? Will Netflix continue to champion auteur-driven cinema as it has in the past or will it focus solely on four-quadrant blockbusters and comedies? We’re not sure, yet, and Jane Campion is worried about that prospect also. 

Continue reading Jane Campion Is Concerned Netflix Might Become “More Picky” Due To Business Concerns & Not Take “Risks” Anymore at The Playlist.

When Jane Campion returned with 2021’s Oscar-nominated “The Power Of The Dog,” there was much talk about the New Zealand filmmaker’s return and her 12-year absence from feature filmmaking. However, often missing in that narrative was the fact that Campion never went anywhere. All she did was pivot to television and two seasons of “Top Of The Lake” (2013 and then 2017), so acclaimed and anticipated at the time, it was invited to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and is largely regarded as some of the best TV of the decade.

Continue reading Elisabeth Moss Talks Missing Out On ‘The Power Of The Dog’ & Hoping To Reunite With Jane Campion at The Playlist.

Back in March, veteran actor Sam Elliott made some tasteless comments about Jane Campion’s compelling western thriller “Power of The Dog” while appearing on the WTF podcast. Elliot took issue with the “piece of shit” film about the American West having been shot by a woman from New Zealand and was upset about the story’s homosexual overtones. Campion herself responded in kind, calling him a “bitch” and reminding Elliott that he is just an actor, not a cowboy.

Continue reading Sam Elliott Apologizes For Homophobic ‘Power of The Dog’ Comments: “I Hurt People & I Feel Terrible” at The Playlist.

After the dismal ratings of last year’s Oscar broadcast, a lot was in the balance for this year’s edition, one less severely curtailed by Covid protocols but with its own share of new worries and controversy. The decision to have the awards from eight categories (documentary short, film editing, makeup/hairstyling, original score, production design, animated short, live-action short, and sound) handed out at the beginning of the ceremony, before the event actually went live on television, was met with strong resistance from all corners of the industry.

Continue reading Analyze This: Why ‘Coda’ Won The 2022 Best Picture Oscar at The Playlist.

Last year’s Academy Awards was scaled-back, and while the pandemic isn’t over yet, you wouldn’t know it from how this year’s Oscars ceremony was put together along with serving alcohol to maskless celebrities, which might have been a poor choice in the wake of the BAFTAs turning into a super-spreader event. Then again, COVID-19 won’t likely end up being the most talked-about aspect of the awards.

READ MORE: Oscars 2022: The Snubs & Surprises

Highlights from the winner speeches include Jessica Chastain taking the Best Actress statue for “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” and spending her acceptance speech calling out the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Continue reading Oscars 2022: Watch All The Winner Acceptance Speeches at The Playlist.

The Oscars were back in the Dolby Theater this year with social distancing and eight categories presented before the live show even began. While there was a joke about Samuel L. Jackson in hosts Regina Hall, Amy Schumer, and Wanda Sykes‘ opening bit, his Oscar moment presented by Denzel Washington, along with all the other Honorary Oscars were similarly not presented live. Despite containing one of the most WTF moments in Oscar history, the show oscillated between dragging and feeling weirdly chaotic.

Continue reading Oscars 2022: The Snubs & Surprises at The Playlist.

Jane Campion has made history once again. Just the second woman nominated for Best Director in 1994 for “The Piano,” she now has become the third woman to win the prestigious Oscar category for “The Power of the Dog.” This is her second Oscar statue after winning Best Original Screenplay for the aforementioned “Piano.”

READ MORE: Kirsten Dunst: “Roles Are Only As Good As The Films They’re In” [Interview]

The Australian native has won a cavalcade of Best Director honors for “The Power of The Dog,” including the DGA Award, the BAFTA Award, the Golden Globe, the LA Film Critics Association, the New York Film Critics Circle, a Venice Film Festival honor, and the Critics Choice Award.

Continue reading Jane Campion Wins Best Director Oscar For ‘Power Of The Dog’ at The Playlist.

As “The Power of the Dog” continues to earn a ton of awards as it marches its way to what seems to be some more trophies at the Oscars, the discussion surrounding the film has less to do with the content of the feature and more to do with comments made by people surrounding the film. First, we saw Sam Elliott make ridiculous comments about the film and its view on Westerns.

Continue reading Jane Campion Apologizes After Controversial Venus & Serena Williams Comments At Critics Choice Awards [Updated] at The Playlist.

In an evening otherwise marked by celebration, there was still a little room for award season controversy. Last night, director Jane Campion took home her first DGA Award for her work on “The Power of the Dog,” an Oscar frontrunner and gleeful twist on the western and male masculinity. But having spent the past few days dogged by the negative comments of actor Sam Elliott, Campion was asked by Deadline if she had a response.

Continue reading Jane Campion Calls Sam Elliott A “Bitch,” Claps Back At His “Misogyny” And “Homophobia” at The Playlist.

Like many other awards shows, the DGA Awards returned to an in-person event for 2022. This year’s event was hosted by Judd Apatow and featured a number of minor upsets. There was no big surprise with the top honor, however, as Jane Campion won her first DGA Award for “The Power of the Dog.”

READ MORE: Director Jane Campion says feature filmmaking is “Not As Daring As Series-Making”

Campion became just the third woman to win the category after Kathryn Bigelow in 2010 for “The Hurt Locker” and Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland” last year.

Continue reading Jane Campion Wins Top Prize At 2022 DGA Awards at The Playlist.

Every year, the Academy and the telecast producers try their damndest to make the Oscars fresh and exciting. Often, this includes floating ideas about new changes to the ceremony that don’t always rub people the right way. And for the 2022 telecast, it appears most filmmakers are absolutely against one of the major changes to this year’s Oscars, including nominees such as Denis Villeneuve and Jane Campion.

We’ve already seen how the decision to relegate eight categories to a pre-taped, pre-ceremony segment has upset folks like Guillermo del Toro and Steven Spielberg.

Continue reading Denis Villeneuve & Jane Campion Join The Chorus Of Filmmakers Upset Over Oscars Telecast Changes at The Playlist.

It’s almost comical how many older Hollywood types end up saying the most out-of-touch things nowadays. Recently, we had some strong words from Francis Ford Coppola about filmmaking and blockbusters. Previously, there’s all that Martin Scorsese stuff about Marvel. And now, it appears Sam Elliott has decided to talk about Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.” And by “talk about,” it’s really just him railing against the film and its depiction of the American West, which is something Elliott feels offended by, apparently. 

Continue reading Sam Elliott Calls ‘The Power Of The Dog’ A “Piece Of Sh*t” & Criticizes The “Allusions To Homosexuality” In The Film at The Playlist.

A day after “Succession” dominated the television nominations, the Directors Guild of America announced the key film nominees for the 2022 DGA Awards. To no surprise, “The Power of the Dog’s” Jane Campion, “Dune’s” Denis Villeneuve, and “Belfast’s” Kenneth Branagh made the list. They were joined by “West Side Story’s” Steven Spielberg and “Licorice Pizza’s” Paul Thomas Anderson.

READ MORE: “Belfast,” “Succession” and “Only Murders in the Building” top 2022 SAG noms

It goes without saying that historically, the DGA nominees for feature film and the Oscar for Best Directing rarely line up.

Continue reading Jane Campion, Denis Villeneuve, Steven Spielberg Among 2022 DGA Film Nominees at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalogue titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

This week’s disc and streaming debuts include the latest from an Oscar-winning international filmmaker, the latest from a Film Twitter favorite, a pair of great 2020 documentaries, and two classics getting the 4K Criterion treatment.

Continue reading The Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Last Night in Soho,’ ‘A Hero,’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night,’ & More at The Playlist.

In a year where Chloe Zhao won the Best Director Oscar for “Nomadland” and went on to release one of the biggest box office successes of 2021 with Marvel Studios’ “Eternals,” it appears the year, as a whole, was fairly disappointing when it comes to the gender gap in filmmaking. After 2020 saw reasonable gains in parity amongst female and male filmmakers, 2021 has taken a step back, according to a new survey.

Continue reading Female Representation Amongst Highest-Grossing Directors Dropped In 2021 at The Playlist.

The New York Film Critics Circle anointed “Drive My Car” as the Best Film of 2021 and now the West Coast critics have had their say. After almost six hours of overall deliberations, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association also selected “Drive My Car” as their Best Film of the year with “The Power of the Dog” as runner-up. “Drive’s” Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe also won Best Screenplay.

Continue reading LA Film Critics Select ‘Drive My Car’ As Best Film Of 2021 at The Playlist.

New Zealander and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jane Campion (“The Piano”) is one of the greatest filmmakers working today and so it’s perhaps no surprise that her latest film, Netflix‘s “The Power Of The Dog” is one of the best films of 2021, atop many critics list and seems bound for Oscar-accolades (it is right at the top of our Best Films of 2021 list too, and our review described it as “cinematic poetry“).

Continue reading How ‘The Power Of The Dog’ Builds Tension & Crafts Drama [Exclusive Video] at The Playlist.

Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” is a front-runner in this year’s awards season. It’s also a Netflix film, which brings some added baggage to the discussion. And as the lines blur between cinema and TV, and the industry is concerned about the future of the theatrical experience, Campion and Guillermo del Toro sat down to talk about streaming and its place in filmmaking. 

The discussion between Jane Campion and Guillermo del Toro is part of Variety’s Directors on Directors, which allowed the two filmmakers to talk about their new films (“The Power of the Dog” and “Nightmare Alley,” respectively) as well as the biggest issue facing the industry today—the ubiquity of streaming. 

Continue reading Jane Campion Enjoys Films On Her iPad But Says Watching On A Phone Is A Line She Won’t Cross at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This biweekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching.

It’s the last month of the year, and the last couple of weeks before Christmas, so the new release shelves are loaded up this week with fall prestige pictures, family favorites on 4K, and catalog favorites from the recent and distant past. 

Continue reading The Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Power Of The Dog,’ ‘The Last Duel,’ ‘The Card Counter’ & More at The Playlist.

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their annual year-end honors, giving an awards season boost to one of the most critically acclaimed films of the year, Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s “Drive My Car.” Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” took three honors including Best Director, Best Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), and Best Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee). For those paying attention, it’s worth noting the NYFCC’s top pick hasn’t won the Oscar for Best Picture since “The Artist” 10 years ago, but every winner has been nominated in the category.

Continue reading New York Film Critics Circle Choose ‘Drive My Car’ As Best Film at The Playlist.

The men in Jane Campion’s films and TV shows often know how to fuck, and they know how to hurt, and the space between those extremes isn’t very wide. These are rough and tumble men—sailors and foresters, drug dealers who survived Thai prison time, homicide detectives—and the way they look would imply certain things about them. Brutish, maybe, and used to command, certainly. Violent, perhaps, and defensive, probably. But what Campion has always done is complicate our assumptions about toxic masculinity by incorporating vulnerability, and peeling back the layers of so much macho artifice to reveal the rawness and tenderness beneath.

Continue reading ‘In The Cut’: Examining The Relationship Between Masculinity & Sexual Desire In Jane Campion’s Sensual Thriller at The Playlist.

With Marvel Studios dominating the box office (and now, streaming), we are constantly seeing directors get asked if they’d be willing to dip their toes in the superhero world. Some say yes. Others, such as Martin Scorsese, clearly have no interest. But what about an acclaimed filmmaker such as Jane Campion? Well, let’s just say Marvel shouldn’t waste the phone call.

READ MORE: Chloe Zhao Says Zack Snyder’s ‘Man Of Steel’ Feels Like “Superman By Terrence Malick” & Influenced ‘Eternals’

Speaking to Variety, Jane Campion was asked if she’d be interested in tackling a superhero film.

Continue reading Jane Campion Isn’t A Fan Of Superhero Films At All: “I Actually Hate Them” at The Playlist.