Jane Campion Lands Directing Oscar For ‘Power of The Dog’ Marking the First Time In Oscar History Where A Woman Took Home Award In Back-To-Back Years

The Best Director category made history again at Sunday’s Oscars, where The Power of the Dog helmer Jane Campion took home the prize, marking the first time in Oscar history a woman has won the award in back-to-back years.

Chloé Zhao took home the prize last year for Nomadland, a film that would go on to sweep the Oscars including wins for Best Picture. Kathryn Bigelow was the first female director to land the coveted award for her 2010 war thriller The Hurt Locker.

Campion had long been the favorite after winning with the Critics Choice and DGA prizes.

She accepted the award Sunday from Kevin Costner, who gave a rousing speech about directing, and she thanked him for how dramatic his speech was and went on talking about how she loves directing so much.

“I love directing because it’s a deep dive into story, and yet the task of manifesting a world can be overwhelming,” she said. “The sweet thing is I’m not alone.”

Campion bested fellow nominees Kenneth Branagh, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg. This also marked her second Oscar, having won for her original screenplay on The Piano.

The film marked Netflix’s only win of the night (The Power of the Dog led all nominees with 12), and the director thanked the whole team at the studio and wrapped her speech by thanking the man she never met, Thomas Savage, who wrote the novel on which the film is based.

“He wrote about cruelty wanting the opposite of kindness,” Campion said.

Check out her speech above.