Jane Campion, 70, is in Locarno to receive a lifetime achievement award.
Campion hadn’t released a film in over 12 years before 2021’s critically acclaimed, and Oscar-winning, “The Power of the Dog.” She thought she had finished making films when she completed the film and would focus on a personal project of hers: a pop-up school for aspiring filmmakers in her native New Zealand.
“It was such a thrill to have a late-career success and to feel that at the end of it that I could do anything I wanted – and the idea of giving back was really fun,” she said Thursday night at the Locarno Film Festival.
However, the success of “Power of the Dog” has led her to getting a sort of carte blanche for her next project and is now confirming that she’s currently working on her next film.
“I think I’m in a good place, to be honest. I think I’m very lucky because I know there will be money for me. People in the industry believe, maybe wrongly, that there will be another really good film. I certainly will be trying.”
Campion is pure class. she’s also the director of “The Piano,” one of the truly singular films of the 1990s, which led to Campion becoming the first female director to ever win the Palme. The Kiwi-born filmmaker has been helming films since the ‘80s, her most acclaimed include “An Angel at My Table,” “Sweetie” and “The Portrait of a Lady.”