Bright Star

Above the Line

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Director

Jane Campion

Bio

Born in Wellington, New Zealand into a theatrical family, Campion graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington then pursued a Diploma of Fine Arts at Chelsea School of Arts in London, completing her studies at Sydney College of Arts where she majored in painting but made films. Subsequently, Campion completed three short films at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney. Campion’s career owes much to Frenchman Pierre Rissient, a seasoned Cannes selector who discovered her three short films in the Australian Film Commission archives in 1986. He invited them along with her television feature Two Friends, to a special programme in Cannes and Peel, her first short film won the Palme D’Or. In 1989 her first feature “Sweetie,” was selected by Rissient, this time for main competition. Rissient later connected Campion and Chapman to CIBY 2000 who fully financed her second feature The Piano (1993). This film also premiered at Cannes and won the Palme D’Or for best film and best actress. The Piano won more than thirty awards including nine Oscar nominations and three Oscars. Other films include: An Angel At My Table, originally intended for television but screened as a feature in 1990 at the Venice Film Festival where it won seven prizes including The Silver Lion; A Portrait Of A Lady; Holy Smoke and In The Cut.

Director- Job Description

The principal creative artist on a movie set. A director is usually (but not always) the driving artistic source behind the filming process, and communicates to actors the way that he/she would like a particular scene played. A director's duties might also include casting, script editing, shot selection, shot composition, and editing. Typically, a director has complete artistic control over all aspects of the movie, but it is not uncommon for the director to be bound by agreements with either a producer or a studio. In some large productions, a director will delegate less important scenes to a second unit director 2UD.