Master Classes

Length:  1999, 35 mm, Colour, 115 mins

Screenplay:  Anna Campion, Jane Campion

Music:  Angelo Badalamenti

Cinematography:  Dion Beebe

Editor:  Veronika Jenet

Art:  Tony Campbell

Costume:  Janet Patterson

Makeup:  Margaret Aston, Kylie Marr

Cast:  Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Julie Hamilton, Sophie Lee, Daniel Wyllie, Paul Goddard

Director's Biography:  JANE CAMPION is renowned for her critically acclaimed film ‘The Piano’ which she wrote and directed starring Holly Hunter, Sam Neil, Anna Paquin and Harvey Keitel. The film received more than 30 international awards, including the ‘Palme D'Or’ at the Cannes Film Festival, and nine Academy Award nominations winning three awards including Best Screenplay. Jane also received awards for Best Director from The New York Film Critics Circle, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Australian Film Critics and nominations as Best Director from the Directors Guild of America, BAFTA and Great Britain's Guild of Regional Film Writers. The film also won Best Picture from the Australian Film Institute. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, Jane graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington then pursued a Diploma of Fine Arts at Chelsea School of Arts in London, completing her studies at Sydney College of Arts where she majored in painting. Subsequently, Jane studied film at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in Sydney. She made her directorial debut with the short film ‘Peel’, which won the ‘Palme D’or’ at the Cannes Film Festival. She directed numerous award-winning short films before making her feature debut with ‘Sweetie’, which premiered in competition at Cannes. The film, a striking and original portrait of a troubled family, won the George Seoul Prize in 1989 for Best Foreign Film, the Los Angeles Film Critics' New Generation Award, the American Spirit of Independence Award for Best Foreign Feature and the Australian Critics Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress. Jane followed this feature with ‘An Angel at My Table’, a dramatisation of the autobiography of author Janet Frame. The film had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival in 1990 where it won seven prizes, including The Silver Lion. It won the American Spirit of Independence Award, gathered prizes at the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals and was voted most popular film at the 1990 Sydney Film Festival. In 1996, Campion directed ‘The Portrait of a Lady’ adapted from the Henry James novel starring Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich. The film was invited to close the Venice Film Festival, was nominated for two Academy Awards and garnered the Francesco Pasinetti Award for Best Film by the National Union of Film Journalists. In 1999 Jane co-wrote with her sister Anna and directed ‘Holy Smoke’ starring Harvey Keitel and Kate Winslet. In 2003 Jane directed and co-wrote with Susanna Moore, In ‘The Cut’ starring Meg Ryan, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Jason Leigh which was selected to open the London Film Festival. Jane recently wrote and directed a short film, ‘The Water Diary’, developed with the United Nations Development Program in order to promote the Millennium Development Goals campaign launched by Kofi Annan in 2000.