Predicting The Major 2022 Oscar Winners
2. Best Director - Jane Campion (The Power Of The Dog)
And talking of the stellar work of Jane Campion, there is surely no one more deserving of the best director accolade. In 1994 she took home the screenplay award for The Piano, but can most likely expect to bag an arguably grander prize for her work on Netflix’s eerie western.
Aside from the acting, The Power Of The Dog is thematically rich, using the sparse plains as a backdrop to explore a warped idea of masculinity gone to fester. Fans of The Piano or Top Of The Lake will know what Campion can do with wide open spaces, and her latest has visual splendour to boot. Shot during the pandemic, she had the luxury of the relatively pandemic-untouched New Zealand at her disposal, and transforms it beautifully into a wild west simulacrum.
She’s not exactly a prolific director, and so any film she comes out with is worthy of attention, but this is her best effort in 25 years or more, and probably all round the best piece of the year. Campion will be a deserving winner of this particular prize, though we don’t think she’ll scoop the big one…