We’re not even there yet, but The Criterion Collection is planning on ringing in 2022 with a bang and doing so by celebrating some amazingly inventive women filmmakers. The crown jewel of their just-released January announcements is Jane Campion‘s masterpiece from 1993 “The Piano,” which was nominated for eight Oscars that year, including Best Picture, winning three for Best Screenplay (Campion), Best Actress (Holly Hunter), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Anna Paquin; the youngest winner ever at the time).

Continue reading Criterion Adds Jane Campion’s ‘The Piano,’ Thomas Vinterberg’s ‘The Celebration & More For January at The Playlist.

Almost 40 years ago, “Citizen Kane” became the first Criterion Collection release on LaserDisc. (I assume the furious clicking sound I now hear is from many millennials and Zoomers googling what the hell LaserDisc was.) And as Criterion moves into the realm of the latest and greatest physical media, 4K UHD, “Citizen Kane” is making its triumphant return.

READ MORE: Criterion To Release ‘Melvin Van Peebles: Four Films’ Blu-Ray Collection This September

Today, Criterion announced its first slate of 4K UHD releases that will begin in November and continue to grow in the months following.

Continue reading Criterion Announces First Slate Of 4K UHD Releases Featuring ‘Citizen Kane,’ ‘Mulholland Drive,’ ‘Menace II Society’ & More at The Playlist.

Jane Campion is a one-of-a-kind filmmaker. That’s not some hyperbolic statement, either. Literally, Campion holds a distinction that no other female director does. She has actually walked away with the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. This weekend saw the end of the 71st Cannes Film Festival, and with Hirokazu Kore-eda winning the coveted award for his film “Shoplifters,” Campion still is surrounded by men.

Continue reading Filmmaker Jane Campion Says We Are At The End Of “One Of The More Ferocious Patriarchal Periods Of Our Time” at The Playlist.

Jane Campion has helped to pave the way for women in her field since the early 1980s. As much as it would be nice to overlook Campion’s gender, the industry appeared both unable and unwilling to do so in the past. Since its inception in 1929, only 4 women have been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director, Jane being the second. Campion appeared at the Film Society of Lincoln Center last week to chronicle her astonishing career, discuss her love of David Lynch and what it really means to be a filmmaker.

Continue reading Jane Campion Talks Her Career and ‘Top Of The Lake: China Girl’ at The Playlist.

What can we say about Jane Campion that we didn’t already say last week in lauding the venerable filmmaker’s feminist history? Simply put, the New Zealander is one of the greatest filmmakers in the world.

The first woman awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes—for her Oscar-winning 1993 feature “The Piano”—and the second woman ever nominated for the Academy Award prize for Best Director, Campion’s indelible, revelatory  career started in 1989 with her debut “Sweetie,” and it launched one of the most distinctive voices in cinema.

Continue reading Essentials: The Films Of Jane Campion at The Playlist.

Starting tomorrow, The Film Society of Lincoln Center will honor Jane Campion with a retrospective, “Jane Campion’s Own Stories,” including an evening with the filmmaker herself. This is just one more accolade in the Academy Award and Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker’s estimable career, as she has spent decades in the male-dominated world of cinema creating profound work by and about women. According to the press release from FSLC:

“Campion makes films that reflect a highly personal and idiosyncratic style, influenced by her background in anthropology and painting, and notable for their visual inventiveness, dark sense of humor, and complex depictions of women and sexuality.

Continue reading The Feminist History Of Jane Campion, From ‘Sweetie’ To ‘Top Of The Lake’ at The Playlist.

Our two-week-long look at the best films of the 1990s, inspired by the wave of ’90s nostalgia in theaters at the minute like this week’s “Power Rangers,” has so far tackled the 10 best movies of 1990, 1991 and 1992, and today reaches 1993. It was a year that saw the swearing-in of President Bill Clinton, the Waco siege, the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the de-penising of John Wayne Bobbitt.

Continue reading The 10 Best Films Of 1993 at The Playlist.

While the company wasn’t completely shuttered at the time, the writing was on the wall and the ailing mini-major studio’s doors closed yesterday, after 220 Oscar nominations since it was founded in 1979 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein.

Continue reading RIP Miramax: The 10 Best Films Of Their Era at The Playlist.

For one it’s a return to creating a period piece — her strongest domain and one she hasn’t revisited since 1996 — and for two, it’s her first film to be in competition at Cannes since 1993 when she won won the Palme d’Or for “The Piano.”

Returning to Cannes after a 16 year break is a strong sign.

Continue reading U.S. Rights To Jane Campion’s ‘Bright Star’ Snatched Up Before Cannes Premiere at The Playlist.