Why more women should direct movies, from Jane Campion

“One of the things we learn in movies directed by men is what the ‘fantasy woman’ is. What we learn in movies directed by women is what real women are about. I don’t think that men see things wrong and women right, just that we do see things differently.”
— Jane Campion

The first Jane Campion film I saw was Angel at My Table, about the writer Janet Frame. Not long after that, Campion made The Piano, which was an international sensation. Campion won an Oscar for that — although for writing it, not for directing it.

Campion would have made history if she had won for directing that year, as no woman up to that point had won that Oscar. History would need to wait another 15 years, when Kathryn Bigelow won for The Hurt Locker.

Campion did eventually win an Oscar for directing: for The Power of the Dog, four years ago. She became the third woman to win for director; Chloé Zhao won earlier for Nomadland.