Jane Campion wins Best Director at the Oscars 2022

Jane Campion has won the Oscar for Best Director for The Power of the Dog at the 2022 Academy Awards. 

She was up against Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car), Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza), Steven Spielberg (West Side Story), and Kenneth Branagh (Belfast).

"It would be impossible without the man I never met, Thomas Savage," Campion said upon accepting her award from Kevin Costner. Savage wrote the novel of the same name that The Power of the Dog is based on. 

"He wrote about cruelty, wanting the opposite – kindness," Campion continued. She also thanked the cast, her producers, and Netflix, noting that the streamer's "whole awesome team embraced this film from the very beginning."

The Power of the Dog stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Phil Burbank, a bad-tempered ranch owner. Jesse Plemons plays his brother George, while Kirsten Dunst plays Rose Gordon, and Kodi Smit-McPhee plays her son Peter. Tensions rise in the film when Rose and George marry, and she moves with her son to the Burbank ranch – Phil disapproves of them both. 

Campion's film was nominated for a massive 12 Oscars in total. Along with Best Director, it was also up for Best Actor for Cumberbatch, Best Supporting Actor for Plemons and McPhee, and Best Supporting Actress for Dunst, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Picture. The Netflix movie ended up losing out on the night's biggest award to CODA.

Head to our Oscars 2022 winners list for the full rundown of the ceremony. The night's biggest talking point was undoubtedly not the actual prize offerings, but Will Smith's on-stage clash with Chris Rock. The Power of the Dog is streaming on Netflix now.