Visionary writer-director Jane Campion has been a vital part of Sydney Film Festival for almost four decades. We dive into her historic SFF appearances– from her early days as a student filmmaker to her triumphant return in 2023.
New Zealand-born writer-director Campion made her SFF debut in 1983 with her short film Peel, followed by a series of groundbreaking shorts (including the 1984 Rouben Mamoulian Award winner A Girl’s Own Story) and her exceptional first feature Two Friends.
The SFF hits continued throughout the decades: from her poignant 1990 Janet Frame drama An Angel at My Table to her gripping 2021 Western, The Power of the Dog. She also made history with two Academy Award wins.
And now, in the Festival’s 70th year, the Campion celebrations continue with the rare retrospective Jane Campion: Her Way.
Keep scrolling to trace Campion’s Sydney Film Festival screenings and appearances throughout the decades.
The 2020s:
It’s been a spectacular few years for Campion fans in Sydney.
RETROSPECTIVE: JANE CAMPION – HER WAY (SFF 2023)
In its 70th edition, the Festival presents an extraordinary retrospective of Campion. Watch all nine features and five shorts from the pioneering filmmaker, alongside Julie Bertuccelli’s insightful new documentary, Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman. You can also see the trailblazing filmmaker in conversation with David Stratton. Book tickets on the SFF website.
THE POWER OF THE DOG (SFF 2021)
Playing to sold-out crowds at SFF 2021, Campion’s tense Western stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Kodi Smit-McPhee. The filmmaker won her second Oscar and Best Director at Venice 2021 for her searing dissection of masculinity.
The 2010s:
The return of a beloved feature – and a few red-carpet appearances.
Sleeping Beauty director Julia Leigh joined her mentor Campion, and Margaret Pomeranz for a Q&A about the film at SFF 2011.
SWEETIE (SFF 2019)
Campion’s iconic 1989 feature hit SFF 2019 as part of David Stratton’s Essential Australian Women Directors retrospective. Writes Stratton: “Filled with eccentric characters and situations – the dancing jackaroos are a hoot! – and all of it superbly photographed by Sally Bongers, this remarkable slice of Australiana, with its choral music and quirky mood shifting, is a genuine original from one of the world’s great contemporary filmmakers.”
The 2000s:
From her psychological thriller In the Cut to sumptuous love story Bright Star, Campion continued to showcase her range in the 2000s. SFF audiences were treated to her 2006 short film.
THE WATER DIARY (SFF 2006)
Created as part of an anthology film addressing the UN’s goals to tackle social, economic, health and environmental challenges, The Water Diary saw Campion direct a powerful short alongside segments from Wim Wenders, Mira Nair, Gus Van Sant, Gaspar Noé and more.
The 1990s:
The decade Campion became a household name.
Originally released in 1989, Sweetie explores sisters, in their twenties, their parents, and family dysfunction,
AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE (SFF 1990)
Originally conceived as a mini-series, Campion’s incredibly moving film played at SFF 1990. Janet Frame grows up in a poor family. She is different than the other kids. She is considered abnormal and locked away in a mental health facility for eight years. Everything changes when she starts writing books.
The 1980s:
SFF screened a series of the filmmaker’s early shorts – now considered classics in the Campion cannon.
The friendship of two 15-year-old school girls, told in reverse, unfolds in Campion’s AFI-winning telemovie, which first premiered at Cannes.
AFTER HOURS (SFF 1985 & SFF 2003)
The short film success continued in 1985 with After Hours, Campion’s powerful depiction of sexual harassment in an office.
PASSIONLESS MOMENTS (SFF 1985)
Gerard Lee (Top of the Lake) served as co-writer and co-director with Campion for this experimental series of vignettes, which was lauded at Cannes in 1986.
A year after her SFF debut, the filmmaker returned to the Festival with her acclaimed short film A Girl’s Own Story, set during the height of Beatlemania. Campion picked up the 1984 Rouben Mamoulian Award at SFF and Best Achievement in Direction at AFI.
Of her win, Campion said in 1993, “When I won the Rouben Mamoulian Award for Girl’s Own Story (1984), that was the first award I’d ever won and it is still the best award. I knew that it could be a career-changer.”
Campion’s first film school project – a short film about a family of redheads on a weekend road trip – screened at the Festival in 1983, and went on to win the 1986 Cannes Palme d’Or for Best Short Film. Fittingly, it’s back on the big screen at SFF 2023 – in the Her Way Retrospective and the AFTRS 50th – Alumni Short Films celebrations.
We acknowledge Australia’s First Nations People as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the land, and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, upon whose Country SFF are based.
We honour the storytelling and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across Australia.