Filmmaker Jane Campion became only the third woman in history to win a Best Director Oscar at this year's Academy Awards. The New Zealand filmmaker took home the honor for her Netflix Western The Power of the Dog, which led the field with twelve nods at the 94th Academy Awards.

This is also the first time in history that two women have won the Best Director Oscar in consecutive years. Last year, Chloé Zhao picked up the award for Nomadland. But unlike that film, The Power of the Dog wasn’t able to add the Best Picture award to its tally; that honor went to CODA. Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win a directing Oscar, for 2009’s The Hurt Locker.

In her acceptance speech, which she began in Māori, Campion thanked her “whole awesome team” and gave a shoutout to Thomas Savage, who wrote the novel the film is based on. In her own words:

“I just wanted to say big love to my fellow nominees. I love you all, you’re all so extraordinarily talented, and it could have been any of you. I love directing because it’s a deep dive into story, yet the task of creating a world can be overwhelming. On The Power of the Dog, I worked with actors I’m moved to call my friends. They met the challenge of the story with the depth of their gifts.”

RELATED: How 'The Power of the Dog' Subverts Western Stereotypes of Masculine Strength

Campion edged out fellow nominees Kenneth Branagh (Belfast), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car), Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza) and Steven Spielberg (West Side Story). This is her second Best Director nomination; Campion was previously nominated for her 1993 drama The Piano, which also won her the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

For a while, it seemed like Campion had self-sabotaged her chances with her comments at the Critics' Choice Awards two weeks ago, where she appeared to devalue the achievements of tennis champions Venus Williams and Serena Williams. The Williams sisters also had a horse in the race: King Richard. Campion had said in her acceptance speech, “You are such marvels. However, you do not play against the guys like I have to."

She later apologized for her remarks, and said in a statement, “I made a thoughtless comment equating what I do in the film world with all that Serena Williams and Venus Williams have achieved. I did not intend to devalue these two legendary Black women and world-class athletes.” In the run-up to the Oscars, Campion picked up honors at the BAFTAs, the Directors Guild of America Awards and the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

The Power of the Dog premiered at Venice ahead of its Netflix debut on December 1. The film tells the story of a gruff rancher in 1925 Montana who terrorizes his brother’s new wife and her son, in an effort to mask his own truth and live up to masculine ideals. All four central actors—Benedict Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons—were also nominated, although Campion walked away with the film’s only win.

You can watch her acceptance speech here, and read the film’s official synopsis down below.

Severe, pale-eyed, handsome, Phil Burbank is brutally beguiling. All of Phil's romance, power and fragility is trapped in the past and in the land: He can castrate a bull calf with two swift slashes of his knife; he swims naked in the river, smearing his body with mud. He is a cowboy as raw as his hides.

The year is 1925. The Burbank brothers are wealthy ranchers in Montana. At the Red Mill restaurant on their way to market, the brothers meet Rose, the widowed proprietress, and her impressionable son Peter. Phil behaves so cruelly he drives them both to tears, reveling in their hurt and rousing his fellow cowhands to laughter - all except his brother George, who comforts Rose then returns to marry her.

As Phil swings between fury and cunning, his taunting of Rose takes an eerie form - he hovers at the edges of her vision, whistling a tune she can no longer play. His mockery of her son is more overt, amplified by the cheering of Phil's cowhand disciples. Then Phil appears to take the boy under his wing. Is this latest gesture a softening that leaves Phil exposed, or a plot twisting further into menace?