It's when business and commerce and art come together somehow men trust men more.' Women do really well in short-film competitions. 'At film schools,' she says, 'the gender balance is about 50/50. It's to do with who funds films in the first place.' 'My sense is that Cannes is very interested in new voices in cinema, never mind where it comes from or the sex of it. I think everyone felt that it was really not right.' She still would be the only woman, but the festival is emphatically not the problem. She won't knock the festival itself, despite its habit of routinely granting high-profile berths to a coterie of veteran male directors Cannes has, as she says, 'been really kind' to her, screening her early shorts (one, Peel, won the short film Palme d'Or in 1986) and taking her first feature, Sweetie, three years later, before giving her the ultimate accolade for The Piano in 1993 (shared with Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine).Įven so, she recalls with some horror an event she attended for Cannes' 50th anniversary, when she found herself on a stage with all the other Palme d'Or winners – the only woman there. Perhaps inevitably, considering her figurehead status, Campion's thoughts often turn to what women can and can't do in the film industry. It's a matter of looking after people – I think women do that really well.' But I will also be trying not to let things get personal, and keep a sense of humour. They are all investing two weeks of their time to come and watch the films and think about them. 'My job is to make sure everyone's voice gets heard. But as the only female winner, to date, of that top prize, it's the kind of honour that is her due.Īs the festival gears up for its 67th edition, Campion appears stoical about what she calls an 'experiment in socialism', the shepherding of an eight-strong group – including fellow directors Sofia Coppola and Nicolas Winding Refn – around the Cannes competition films. She's actually the 10th woman to lead the festival's prize-giving committee – even if men have done it on 57 other occasions – and shares the honour with some heady company: Jeanne Moreau, Françoise Sagan, Liv Ullmann, Sophia Loren. So it comes as a surprise that her latest gig, as president of the Cannes film festival jury, isn't another act of pioneering gender breakthrough.

Jane Campion was the first woman to win a Palme d'Or and only the second ever to be nominated for the best director Oscar.

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