Jane Campion is proposing a solution to make the film world more equitable: quotas.
The first female filmmaker ever to win the Palme d’Or, Campion took home the honor in 1993 for “The Piano.” More than two decades later, she still doesn’t have a successor. It’s taken “too long” for another woman to win Cannes’ top prize, according to the Oscar-nominated writer-director herself. “It’s insane,” she’s said. “And I’m really annoyed that the director-ess from ‘Toni Erdmann’ [Maren Ade] didn’t win last time. I thought, ‘Finally, a buddy.’ No. No! There’s no more guys winning. That’s it. It’s just going to be women winning from now on.” Given her unique history and outspokenness about the subject, it comes as no surprise that Campion is often asked about how to address the film industry’s woman problem. During a recent interview with the BBC’s “Front Row” Campion discussed how change can be effected.
“Here we are 25 years later and you’re still the only woman to have won the Palme d’Or and it’s quite depressing. What needs to be done?” the interviewer asked.
Campion didn’t hesitate to respond. “My plan is that all the public money — which is taxpayer’s money — should go 50 percent to women and 50 percent to men,” she said. If the change took effect tomorrow, she speculated that the problem would be fixed “within five years.”
Ade has also spoken in favor of quota systems. “There are not enough women directing films. In Germany, we have this discussion now about a quota system as well, and I think we should try it, because concerning the public money, it should be equal,” the German writer-director said.
Campion created “Top of the Lake,” which is returning for a second season. Titled “Top of the Lake: China Girl,” the second installment of the Elisabeth Moss-led murder-mystery premieres in the UK July 27 and this fall in the U.S. on SundanceTV. New episodes will stream on Hulu the day after they air on SundanceTV.
“I had these stories and there was no chance of getting anybody else to do them, so I had to become a director of my own work,” Campion recently told The Guardian. “I never thought I wanted to be a film director. I’m not actually ambitious per se in terms of a career; I’m just ambitious to achieve the stories and dramas that I’ve come up with.”
