Jane Campion becomes 3rd woman to win best director
Jane Campion won the Academy Award for best director for “The Power of the Dog,” becoming just the third woman to win the trophy.
The New Zealand-born filmmaker, 67, follows in the footsteps of Kathryn Bigelow’s win for “The Hurt Locker” in 2010 and Chloé Zhao’s win for “Nomadland” in 2021. Only seven women have ever been nominated for best director in Oscars history.
Campion, who was previously nominated for her 1994 film “The Piano,” beat out fellow nominees Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”), Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”) and Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”).
During her acceptance speech, Campion said, “I love directing because it’s a deep dive into story yet the task of creating a world can be overwhelming.”
“On ‘The Power of the Dog,’ I worked with actors I’m moved to call my friends. They met the challenge of the story with the depth of their gifts.”
-ABC News’ Carson Blackwelder