Kathryn Bigelow

**Kathryn Ann Bigelow** (born November 27, 1951) is an American movie director, movie producer, screenwriter and television director. Her most critically successful movies are _The Hurt Locker_ and _Zero Dark Thirty_. She is the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director, the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing and the BAFTA Award for Best Direction for _The Hurt Locker_. She is also known for other movies such as _Point Break_, _Near Dark,_ _Strange Days_ and most recently _Detroit_.

## Early Life and education

Bigelow was born on November 27, 1951 in San Carlos, California. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and got a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1972. She did a study program at Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Bigelow went on to do graduate studies at Columbia University.

Bigelow taught at the California Institute of the Arts. Bigelow wrote her first movie _The Set-Up_ in 1978 at Columbia University. The movie was about two men beating each other up and two professors analyzing the situation. The movie was part of her MFA at Columbia.

### Early Career

Bigelow's first full-length movie was the independent movie _The Loveless_ (1981). She directed it with Monty Montgomery. The story was about a bicycle rider played by Willem Dafoe. Bigelow did not want it to follow a traditional plot-line. The movie was, in some ways, against mainstream Hollywood.

Bigelow went on to direct _Near Dark_ (1987). The movie was Bigelow's first as a single director. Three actors were also in _Aliens_ (1986), which James Cameron directed. The movie did not make that much money but got positive reviews from critics. Like _The Loveless_, Bigelow also broke tradition and experimented with genre. The movie is a mixture of western and vampire genres. In 1988, The Museum of Modern Art highlighted the new movie in its Cineprobe program. _Near Dark_ is considered the first movie, in which Bigelow showed a unique and notable style as filmmaker.

The next movie Bigelow directed was _Blue Steel_ (1990). The movie was an action genre but also had elements of a fantasy movie and plays with genre. In the movie, Jamie Lee Curtis stars as a police officer whom a serial killer stalks. Like _Near Dark_, Eric Red co-wrote the screenplay. _Blue Steel_ is similar to _The Silence of the Lambs_ (1991). In both, women detectives are the main characters. Some critics said the movie was empowering for women.

_Point Break_ (1991) followed Blue Steel. The movie starred Keanu Reeves as an FBI agent. The movie made a lot more money than Bigelow's previous movies. It got about $80 million profit. However, it had somewhat lower ratings. Critics thought the movie was simply an action movie and was just gut emotions. Some have said the movie is not as radical or feminist as Bigelow's other movies. The movie has created a cult following.

Bigelow directed her next movie _Strange Days_ (1995). She worked with her former husband, James Cameron, on the story. Bigelow focused more on the less romantic parts of the story. Bigelow partly wanted to work on _Strange Days_ because of events like the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The movie was a science fiction thriller and used film noir. It made very little money and was controversial with critics. Bigelow wanted to include controversial themes like racism, abuse of power, and rape. The movie was also controversial, because Bigelow was a female director. _Strange Days_ almost ended Bigelow's career. Bigelow would not direct another movie for five years.

Bigelow directed the independent movie _K-19: The Widowmaker_ in 2002. The movie stars Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson and is about Soviet soldiers in the first nuclear submarine. The movie was very expensive, did not make a lot of money and got mixed reviews.

### 2008–present

Bigelow's next movie was the independent movie _The Hurt Locker_ (2008). The movie is about an explosive disposal team in the Iraq War. The movie stars Jeremy Renner, Brian Geraghty and Anthony Mackie. It was shown at the Venice Film Festival in September 2008. Bigelow wanted the movie to be as real as possible, "raw and immediate". Bigelow was interested in the idea of a man going near bombs. Usually, people would run away from bombs. Mark Boal was the screenwriter. Bigelow wanted cinematographer Barry Ackroyd because she liked how real _United 93_ was.

The movie was a critical success and got very positive reviews. Critics liked Bigelow as director. The movie got many awards. The movie got nine Academy Award nominations and won six. It also got nine Oscar nominations. The movie also won many awards from critics.  Bigelow won the Academy Award for Best Director, the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing and the BAFTA Award for Best Direction. It is thought to be one of best movies of 2008. BBC also named it one of the best movies of the 21st century.

Bigelow's next movie _Zero Dark Thirty_ (2012) was also a success. It is about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Critics praised the movie. They said it was one of the best of year. The movie got five nominations at the Academy Awards and four nominations at the Golden Globe Awards. There was only controversy about the torture scenes.

Bigelow's most recent movie is _Detroit_ (2017)_._ It is about the 1967 Detroit riots. The movie had positive reviews, but made little money. Bigelow worked again with Mark Boal.

In March 2022, it was announced that Bigelow will direct a movie version of David Koepp’s book, _Aurora_ for Netflix.

## Personal life

Bigelow was married to director James Cameron from 1989 to 1991.

## Movies

|rowspan="2" style="width:33px;"|Year|rowspan="2"|Title||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1981|_The Loveless_||||Co-written and co-directed with Monty Montgomery||
|1987|_Near Dark_||||rowspan=2|Co-written with Eric Red|
|1990|_Blue Steel_||||||
|1991|_Point Break_||||||
|1995|_Strange Days_||||||
|1996|_Undertow_||||Co-written with Eric Red||
|2000|_The Weight of Water_||||||
|2002|_K-19: The Widowmaker_||||||
|2008|_The Hurt Locker_||||Academy Award for Best Director Academy Award for Best Picture||
|2012|_Zero Dark Thirty_||||Nominated — Academy Award for Best Picture||
|2017|_Detroit_||||||
|TBD|_Aurora_||||||

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Kathryn Bigelow
- **image**: Kathryn Bigelow by David Shankbone.jpg
- **caption**: Bigelow in 2010
- **birth name**: Kathryn Ann Bigelow
- **birth place**: San Carlos, California, U.S.
- **education**: San Francisco Art Institute
Columbia University
- **years active**: 1978–present