LOS ANGELES (REUTERS) - Jane Campion received the Academy Award for best director on Sunday (March 27) for her gothic Western The Power Of The Dog, becoming just the third woman in the Oscars' 94-year history to take home the prize.

The New Zealand native joins Kathryn Bigelow and Chloe Zhao as the only women to have received the honour for directing, a field still dominated by men in Hollywood.

Campion, 67, was nominated previously for her 1993 drama The Piano. She lost the directing award that year to Steven Spielberg, who landed the trophy for Schindler's List (1993), but won the Oscar for best original screenplay.

Spielberg was in the mix again this year for his remake of classic musical West Side Story, as was Kenneth Branagh for his semi-autobiographical drama Belfast.

No woman besides Campion has been nominated for best director more than once. She recently described herself as "the grandmother of the women's movement in film".

The Power Of The Dog is a tale of machismo and revenge set in 1925 Montana and based on a 1967 novel by Thomas Savage.

Shot in New Zealand, the movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch as a cruel, twisted ranch owner who sets out to torment his brother's new wife, played by Kirsten Dunst.

The movie was Campion's first since 2009. She recently worked in television, creating and writing acclaimed drama series Top Of The Lake (2013, 2017).

Zhao won best director last year for Nomadland (2020), while Bigelow received the honour for 2008 drama The Hurt Locker.