Janet Patterson
About
Biography
Biography
This Australian designer has forged a career working with strong female directors. Janet Patterson spent much of the 1970s studying costuming and interior design. By 1980, she was working as a production designer with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, working on numerous TV-movies like "Eden's Lost," "Come in Spinner" and Jane Campion's award-winning "Two Friends" (1986). After spending a decade in television, Patterson moved to the big screen with Gillian Armstrong's contemporary drama "The Last Days of Chez Nous" (1992), in which the spatial aspects of the settings and the characters interaction with those areas play a major role. She won critical praise and her first Oscar nomination (as well as BAFTA and Australian Film Institute Awards) for her Victorian and native costumes for Campion's acclaimed "The Piano" (1993). Again working with Campion, Patterson created both the settings and the costumes for "The Portrait of a Lady" (1996), picking up a second Oscar nod for Best Costume Design. Her work contrasted a bleak, wintry English countryside with colorful yet cruel Italian villas and created the sterile world inhabited by the heroine. Patterson followed with another reteaming with Armstrong on the period drama "Oscar & Lucinda" (1997).
Filmography
Costume-Wardrobe (Feature Film)
Production Designer (Feature Film)
Film Production - Main (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Film Production - Main (Special)
Life Events
1980
Worked as a production designer at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
1985
First designed costumes for the Australian TV mini-series "Palace of Dreams"
1986
Designed the costumes for the Australian TV-movie, "Two Friends"; first collaboration with director Jane Campion
1989
Served as production assistant on "City of Shadows"
1992
Feature film debut as production designer and costume designer, "The Last Days of Chez Nous"; directed by Gillian Armstrong
1993
Created the costumes for Campion's breakthrough feature, "The Piano"; received first Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design
1996
Re-teamed with Campion for "The Portrait of a Lady" as the production and costume designer; earned second Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design
1997
Designed the costumes for "Oscar & Lucinda," which re-teamed her with director Gillian Armstrong; earned an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design
1999
Was the production and costume designer for Campion's "Holy Smoke"
2002
Designed the costumes for P. J. Hogan's feature adaptation of "Peter Pan"
2009
Fifth collaboration with Jane Campion, "Bright Star"; earned an Oscar nomination for Best Costume Design
