Jane Campion Biography, Life, Interesting Facts

Childhood And Early Life

Jane Campion was born in Wellington, New Zealand on the 30 April 1954. She was born into an artistic family. Her father Richard was theatre and opera director and her mother Edith was an actress.

Education

Jane Campion obtained a B.A. from Victoria University in Wellington (1975) then enrolled at the Chelsea Art School in London. In the early 1980s, she studied at the Sydney College of the Arts, graduating with a diploma in visual arts in 1981. Around this time she made her first film Tissues (1980) and then studied at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (1984).

Rise To Fame

Her first short film was Peel (1982) which won an award at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival. Her first film for television was Two Friends (1986), and her film debut was Sweetie (1989). She then made An Angel at My Table (1990) based on Janet Frame’s book of the same name, The Piano (1993), The Portrait of a Lady (1996), Holy Smoke (1999). And Bright Star (2009).

Jane Campion wrote and directed the hit television series Top of the Lake which was set in and filmed in New Zealand. A second series was commissioned in 2014.

Awards And Achievements

She has been the recipient of numerous awards including a 1994 Oscar for Best Writing: Screenplay Written for the Screen for The Piano (1993). The same year she was nominated for a Best Director Oscar for The Piano. The same year she was nominated for two Golden Globes for The Piano, one of the best writing and the other for best director. In New Zealand’s 2016 New Year Honours Campion was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit for her work.

Personal Life

Between 1992 and 2001 Jane Campion was married to Colin Englert. The couple had two children together. A son Jasper (b.1993) who died in infancy and a daughter Alice (b.1994).