The first woman ever to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes
By May 1993, New Zealand director Jane Campion had returned to her home in Australia after handing in the completed version of her film The Piano to film festivals, like Cannes Film Festival, around the world. Eight months pregnant, Campion was only a few weeks away from beginning an entirely new chapter of her life. However, halfway across the world, in a resort town on the French Rivera, she was making history.
The awarding of the Palme d’Or to Campion for The Piano that year signified the first time a female director had won the coveted prize in its near-70-year history. In her absence, the award was accepted by one of the film’s stars, Sam Neill, who stated, “This is a kind of miracle — a miracle wrought by Jane Campion.”
A haunting and hypnotic period drama, The Piano follows a Scottish woman with self-imposed muteness who travels to New Zealand, with her young daughter and their piano, after being sold into marriage by her father. Communicating purely through sign language and expressing herself on the piano, she becomes romantically involved with her new husband’s close associate and friend.
Earning the Palme d’Or was a colossal achievement not just for Campion, but for female filmmaking talent across the world. It wasn’t, however, Campion’s first win at Cannes; in 1986, Campion’s short film An Exercise in Discipline: Peel won the Short Film Palme d’Or, putting her on the map and paving the way for her to make her debut feature Sweetie in 1989.
Only four years and two more features later, Campion triumphed again at the prestigious French festival. The award was, however, split between two films; both were deemed so extraordinary that the Jury that year clearly felt choosing one over the other was an impossible feat. The second recipient of the prize was Chen Kaige for Farewell to My Concubine, marking a second groundbreaking moment for cinema with the first Chinese win at the festival.
Campion’s success no doubt paved the way for and inspired future female directors. It does seem, however, that the Festival and the film industry at large still have a ways to go; the second female winner of the Palme d’Or came almost thirty years later with Julia Ducournau’s Titane. With six women directors selected for this year’s competition, there’s some hope that a third female winner might emerge from the festival.
