Watch Latin American Music Awards
A new documentary about “The Power of the Dog” director Jane Campion has been picked up for sales by WestEnd Films and Cinephil.
Directed by César Award-winning “Since Otar Left…” helmer Julie Bertuccelli, “Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman” is screening as part of the Cannes Classics line-up.
The New Zealand director was the first woman to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes, for “The Piano,” and this year won the best director Oscar for her Netflix western “The Power of the Dog.” Bertuccelli’s documentary on the 68-year-old filmmaker, which spans 40 years, is described as “the portrait [Campion] deserves, in a film that is unapologetically subjective and offbeat, very much mirroring [Campion’s] own trailblazing journey in cinema and life.”
The film is produced by Academy Award nominee Estelle Fialon (“The Gatekeepers,” “Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By”), and crew members include editors Laure Gardette (“Capernaum,” “Polisse”) and Svetlana Vaynblat (“Flickering Ghosts of Loves Gone By”), as well as César Award-winning sound editor and mixer Olivier Goinard (“Adolescentes,” “Le Chant du Loup”).
“Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman” is produced by Les Films du Poisson, which had three films in Cannes in 2021. The outfit recently produced the French remake of Hagai Levi’s “In Treatment,” with showrunners Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, which became French broadcaster ARTE’s most watched broadcast with more than 60 million viewers.
Bertuccelli said of her documentary: “Jane is the director for whom I have the most admiration and with whom I feel a genuine connection. Her films have transported and liberated me; they resonate deep within me. They’ve given me the confidence and inspiration to continue making films. These 40 years of a woman’s life will be marked by the exceptional career of a major filmmaker, an explorer, an inventor of forms, an indefatigable curious person, who has imprinted the history of cinema with her unique imagination, and who today marks the younger generations with her lasting influence.”
Maya Amsellem, managing director of WestEnd Films, added: “‘Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman’ is a rare, illuminating and inspiring portrait of Jane as both filmmaker and woman — WestEnd and Cinephil are thrilled to bring this joyous and moving film to the festival.”
Tel Aviv-based sales outfit and advisory firm Cinephil (“Flee,” “A House Made of Splinters”) struck a JV with WestEnd Films (“Rhino,” “The Score”) in 2021 — a deal that sees the two companies unite on development, financing and sales.
The companies will together introduce the film to buyers at this month’s Marché du Film in Cannes.
