Page 3 Profile: Jane Champion, Film-maker

(Rex Features)

A coup de maître.

Quite. Film-maker Jane Campion, the first and only woman to be awarded the Palme d’Or, is to lead the jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Organisers announced yesterday that the 59-year-old Kiwi will be picking up the baton from Jaws director Steven Spielberg.

I remember something about pianos…

The Piano, in fact. Campion’s 1993 romantic film, about a mute pianist and her daughter, secured her the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ most prestigious accolade. Described by the critic Roger Ebert as “peculiar and haunting” in its ability to capture “a whole universe of feeling”, the film also won Campion a best screenplay Oscar and earned Academy Awards for its stars Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin.

She’s no stranger to success then?

No, but she still received this latest news with enthusiasm and poise. In a statement she said she was “truly honoured” and “can’t wait” for the 67th Cannes Film Festival, which takes place from 14 to 25 May..

I expect it’s like returning to the arms of an old friend.

The New Zealander first attended the film festival in 1986, when her nine-minute film, Peel, won the Short Film Palme d’Or, setting her on the path to a meteoric rise to fame. But Campion continues to be in awe of Cannes: “It is a mythical and exciting festival where amazing things can happen, actors are discovered, films are financed, careers are made, I know this, because that is what happened to me!”

Is she the first woman to head the jury, too?

Liv Ullmann and Isabelle Huppert are among previous female leaders, in 2001 and 2009 respectively, but most films presented over the years have been directed by men. Festival director Gilles Jacob described Campion as “a true master” who wowed juries with films “shot through with such courage and humanity and captured such a unique world”.

What else might I have seen?

Campion has worked with such stars as Nicole Kidman (Portrait of a Lady, 1996), Kate Winslet (Holy Smoke, 1999) and Meg Ryan (In the Cut, 2003). In recent years, she has won critical acclaim for her television series Top of the Lake.