Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow
The Hurt Locker, Near Dark, Blue Steel
This is a signed photo of a painting by Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win the Oscar for best director in the 82 years of the Academy award's history.
Fending off competition from ex-husband James Cameron's multimillion-dollar sci-fi extravaganza Avatar, her low-budget war movie The Hurt Locker won six prizes at the Academy awards in 2010.
Kathryn is known for eschewing genres most associated with female directors – instead striding determinedly in male-dominated territory with her action movies (Point Break, K-19: The Widowmaker), police thrillers (Blue Steel) and even a vampire/western hybrid (Near Dark). It's an odd route for someone who started out as a painter and conceptual artist, but her fans say she has always refused to make movies that would simply make her money – turning down high school comedies for grittier fare. Nor does she take the easy way out when filming. The Hurt Locker, which follows a bomb-disposal squad in Iraq, was shot in the Jordanian desert, without US studio backing and with unknown actors in the lead roles.
In receiving her Oscar, she said she longed for the day when the fact that she was female would be a moot point, but acknowledged her barrier-breaking role: "I hope I'm the first of many . . . I'm ever grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious male or female film-maker and have them feel that the impossible is possible and never give up on your dream."
Kathryn is currently prepping the drug war drama Triple Frontier with Tom Hanks set to star.
A very talented painter, she spent two years at the San Francisco Art Institute. At 20, she won a scholarship to the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program. She graduated from the Columbia University School of Arts in 1979. She was also a member of the British avant-garde cultural group, Art and Language.
Kathryn Bigelow at the Internet Movie Database