“I would love to see more women directors because they represent half of the population – and gave birth to the whole world. Without them writing and being directors, the rest of us are not going to know the whole story. – Jane Campion
In response to the protests last year that not a single female director was nominated for last year’s Palme d’Or, the Cannes Film Fest is bringing not one but two female filmmakers to prominent positions at the festival this year. You really can’t drop the ball if you are a female director – even where international cinema, far less male-centric than American cinema, is concerned.
Jane Campion heads the jury for the Cannes Film Festival this year. She has the distinction of being the only female to ever take home the Palme d’or. Campion is one of the most vivid and vital voices in film at all and simply does not get the attention she richly deserves. The last thing we saw from Campion was the exquisite series Top of the Lake, which starred mostly women, of course, and followed the story of a missing pregnant teen. Campion is a true visionary as a director, with a painterly eye – one who is not afraid to tell the naked truth about people. Her films tend to revolve around women – that includes their sexuality but not at the expense of the rest of who they are.
Campion’s only film to get near the vicinity of Oscar was The Piano. It is a masterpiece, to be sure. But her other films have been worth paying attention to – Sweetie, Holy Smoke, and Bright Star specifically.
Andrea Arnold has been appointed to head Critics Week. Arnold won the Jury Prize in 2006 and 2009. Critics Week is meant to focus on new and upcoming filmmakers and will run from May 15 through May 23, 2014. Arnold won the Oscar for Wasp, a short film, in 2003. She was recognized in Cannes for Fish Tank and Red Road.
Arnold is a British director, 52 years old. Jane Campion is from New Zealand and is 59 years old. As you can plainly see, world cinema has been more open to the female auteur than America will ever be. But hey, it’s a start.
Officially Jane Campion is not the only woman to take home the Palme D’Or, as they gave it to Adele Exarchopolous and Lea Seydoux along with Kechiche last year.
Makes the decision to award the actresses the Palme sound all the more stupid when you put it like that.
The fact that Abbie Cornish in the 2009 Oscar race was not even close to get a remote, distant chance of getting a possible nomination (all that is written in a hyperbolic way on purpose) for her unforgetable acting in “Bright Star” (also Michelle Pfeiffer for “Chéri”), still makes that year one of the most weak, depressing and irritanting on the Best Actress categoryu.
Both are superb filmmakers. Very pleased to have noted both of these appointments.
Though last year, Sasha, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi was nominated for the Palme d’Or for A Castle in Italy. Granted, that was among the least well-received films in competition last year, it was remarked that her film had only been included due to her celebrity status, and 1/20 women in competition is a pretty shameful figure. But facts are facts!
i loved TOP OF THE LAKE, every second of it, it sucked me in from scene one. I’m kind of shocked why Sasha never wrote anything about it, i never knew she even liked it or not until now. IT TRULY IS EXQUISITE, and those performances by Elisabeth Moss and Holly Hunter, wow…
The portests you mention are not from last year, but rather two years ago – the article is dated 2012. Plus, last year they nominated Valeria Bruni Tadeschi.