Oscars 2022: Jane Campion becomes 1st woman nominated for Best Director twice

Nearly 30 years after her first nomination, director Jane Campion has made history with another Oscar nod.

Campion was nominated Tuesday for Best Director at the 2022 Academy Awards for her acclaimed Netflix drama The Power of the Dog. In doing so, she became the first woman ever nominated for Best Director at the Oscars more than once. Campion was first nominated in 1994 for The Piano.

At the time, Campion was only the second woman to ever be nominated for Best Director, with the first being ​​Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties. As of Tuesday, seven women have been nominated for Best Director in Oscars history: Wertmüller, Campion, Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird), Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), and Chloé Zhao (Nomadland).

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When Zhao won Best Director for Nomadland in 2021, she became just the second woman to win that award after Bigelow, as well as the first woman of color. With Fennell also nominated, 2021 was the first year two female directors competed in the category. Campion is currently seen as the frontrunner to win Best Director this year, which would make this the first time the prize went to back-to-back female winners. In fact, this is also the first time there were female directors nominated during two consecutive Oscars.

Nomadland in 2021 also became the first Best Picture winner directed by a woman of color and the second directed by a woman after Bigelow's The Hurt Locker. Just one year later, The Power of the Dog, seen as a strong contender for the top prize, could become the third.