Movie director Jane Campion was our choice for New Zealander of the Year after her film The Piano won the Cannes film festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or.
Campion was the first woman to take the prize and the film achieved a rare double honour when the star, Holly Hunter, won the award for best actress.
"By year's end, it was still picking up local awards wherever it opened," wrote Herald film critic Peter Calder in his tribute to Campion.
"Add to that the Oscar or two that The Piano seems certain to pick up in March and it's no exaggeration to say the Wellington-born film-maker is, for the moment and by the judgment of wise heads, the world's best."
It was a fair prediction. The Piano - about a mute woman sent to New Zealand for an arranged marriage in the 19th century - won three Academy awards: best actress for Holly Hunter, best supporting actress for Anna Paquin and best original screenplay for Campion.
