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.
Career
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 movie 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.