Bigelow, Kathryn (1951-…), was the first woman to win an Academy Award for motion-picture directing. In 2010, she won an Oscar for directing the drama The Hurt Locker (2008; released in the United States in 2009). This film tells the story of U.S. combat soldiers who defused roadside bombs during the Iraq War (2003-2011). Defusing bombs involves removing the fuses from them so that they do not explode. The Hurt Locker also won the Academy Award for best picture.
Kathryn Ann Bigelow was born in San Carlos, California, on Nov. 27, 1951. She studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute and at the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. In the 1970’s, Bigelow worked as an artist, and her paintings attracted attention from major critics. In 1979, she earned a master’s degree in fine arts from Columbia University in New York City.
Bigelow’s first feature-length film was The Loveless (1981), which she co-directed with the American director Mont Montgomery. In 1983, Bigelow moved to Los Angeles, California, to be near the motion-picture industry. Her first solo feature was the horror film Near Dark (1987). Bigelow also directed the crime thrillers Blue Steel (1990), Point Break (1991), and Strange Days (1995); the mystery The Weight of Water (2000); and the historical thriller K-19: The Widowmaker (2002). In addition, she directed Zero Dark Thirty (2012), a historical drama about the hunt for al-Qa`ida leader Osama Bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States. Bigelow was married to the Canadian film director James Cameron from 1989 to 1991.
