Academy Awards: Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win an Oscar for best director | NJ.com Academy Awards: Kathryn Bigelow is the first woman to win an Oscar for best director comments GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/Getty Images"The Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow has won the Oscar for best director, become the first woman ever to achieve the top honor.Above, Bigelow arrives at the 82nd annual Academy Awards Nominee Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California on February 15, 2010. "The Hurt Locker" director Kathryn Bigelow has won the Oscar for best director, becoming the first woman ever to achieve the top honor at the Academy Awards. While her best-known films were such fare as the vampire pic "Near Dark" and the Patrick Swayze surfing actioner "Point Break," the critically-acclaimed "The Hurt Locker" has put Bigelow into a different stratosphere. She was the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America award for outstanding directorial achievement in a motion picture for "The Hurt Locker." She also won the best director prize at the 2010 British Academy Film Awards.

She was also nominated for a Golden Globe but ex-husband James Cameron took the prize for his 3D sci-fi epic "Avatar." Bigelow was the first female to win a BAFTA Award for best direction and fourth ever to be nominated for an Oscar after Lina Wertmüller for "Seven Beauties" in 1976, Jane Campion for "The Piano" in 1993 and Sofia Coppola for "Lost in Translation" in 2003. "The Hurt Locker" follows a bomb disposal team during the Iraq War and stars Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty and best actor nominee Jeremy Renner. Bigelow's film delves into the heart of their tour as they contend with dangerous bombs and an even more dangerous insurgency. Bigelow shot the action film in the Middle East -- specifically in Jordan. Complete Academy Awards coverage: Kathryn Bigelow makes history as first woman to win best director Oscar | Film | The Guardian Kathryn Bigelow makes history as first woman to win best director Oscar Iraq war film The Hurt Locker wins six awards including best picture and best original screenplay Kathryn Bigelow (left) celebrates her best director Oscar with Barbra Streisand.

Photograph: Matt Sayles/AP Kathryn Bigelow makes history as first woman to win best director Oscar Iraq war film The Hurt Locker wins six awards including best picture and best original screenplay Monday 8 March 2010 06.00 EST First published on Monday 8 March 2010 06.00 EST Share on Messenger Close Kathryn Bigelow today became the first woman in history to win the best director award at the Oscars. Her low-budget Iraq war film, The Hurt Locker, about a bomb disposal team, was the big winner at the ceremony. It took six academy awards, including those for best picture and best original screenplay. The Hurt Locker triumphed the over the 3D blockbuster Avatar, directed by Bigelow's former husband, James Cameron . Cameron, who sat behind Bigelow at the ceremony in the Kodak theatre in Hollywood, was one of the first to offer congratulations when he reached over to tap her on the shoulder. Bigelow described the award as a "moment of a lifetime" and dedicated her Oscar to the servicemen and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. "May they come home safe," she said. The Hurt Locker is an apolitical film focusing on the heroism of bomb disposal experts.

It was critically acclaimed but not a box office success and was attacked as unrealistic by bomb experts . Bigelow was only the fourth woman to be nominated for best director in the 82-year history of the Oscars . The previous female nominees were Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation in 2003, Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993, and Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties in 1975. Barbra Streisand, the director of films including Yentl and The Prince of Tides, presented the award. In interviews after the ceremony, Bigelow resisted reporters' attempts to encourage her to gloat about her victory over Cameron. "I think he is an extraordinary film-maker," she said. Much of the build-up to the Oscars had focused on the rivalry between the former couple , who married in 1989 and divorced two years later. It was the subject of jokes from the hosts of the ceremony, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin . "She was so pleased to be nominated with him she sent him a beautiful gift basket – with a timer," Baldwin said. Bigelow has for decades been a female pioneer in the male-dominated world of action movies.

Her previous films include Point Break, Strange Days and K-19: The Widowmaker. "I'm drawn to provocative characters," she told the Guardian in video interview last year. At the Directors Guild of America Awards, where she also won the top honour, Bigelow said: "I suppose I like to think of myself as a film-maker", rather than as a female film-maker. Topics Brenda Chapman Becomes First Woman to Win Feature Animation Oscar [UPDATED] Brenda Chapman Becomes First Woman to Win Feature Animation Oscar [UPDATED] 22 A writer couldn’t have scripted a more Hollywood ending to the saga of Brenda Chapman, Pixar’s first female director. It was over two years ago when Cartoon Brew broke the story about Chapman being unceremoniously dumped from her film Brave . Last night, Brenda made history after becoming the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a prize shared with co-director Mark Andrews. It took only twelve years of the Best Animated Feature award before the Academy recognized a film directed by a woman. By comparison, it took 82 years before the Academy awarded an Oscar to a live-action film directed by a woman.

That happened in 2009, when Kathryn Bigelow won both Best Picture and Best Director for The Hurt Locker. Let us hope that Hollywood leaves behind its pathetically homogeneous history and continues to embrace diversity and fresh perspectives on storytelling. [UPDATE]: For the record, I should point out that Vicky Jenson co-directed Shrek, which won the very first Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2001. Sadly, Jenson did not receive an Oscar because the award was given to the film’s producer in that first year. PARTNER MESSAGE Amid Amidi is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Cartoon Brew. Read his full bio HERE . wildeyed I’m curious why the Director(s) get the Oscar for Best Animated Picture when it’s the Producers who get it for Best Picture? …because there is a Best Director category… Recent Grad Probably because “best director” usually applies to only live action movies, so animation directors don’t have their own category to shine. Mac Best Picture going to a producer is an acknowledgement that the producer made it happen, with all of these other professionals doing their jobs. For most cartoon industry animation the producer would make more sense.

Klyph14 OR, maybe we shouldn’t tie the value of an artist’s achievements (man or woman) directly to how many awards they win. Recent Grad Surely women do not suck that much at directing that a good one comes around only once every 85 years or so. Stefan Really, a female director should have been awarded the first time they introduced this category. However, because they were still trying to figure out who should get the Animated Feature Oscar, the producer of Shrek won instead of the directors, one of which was Vicky Jenson. Alberto If this fact has had some weigh in the award, I don’t care if she’s a woman, a man or a creature from outer space. Ara It matters because women directors are heavily underrepresented/recognized in the animation field, especially when it comes to special awards like this. It SHOULDN’T matter that she’s a woman, but in this case, it DOES. Until more women are recognized in animation, such a fact will always be noteworthy. Lefty OR, maybe we shouldn’t believe that the gender of a director is the sole determinant of a film’s quality. Jonah Nobody here even said that, or anything even close to that.

Lefty The snotty implication in the second paragraph is that the Academy was under some sort of obligation to award the Best Animated Feature to a woman much sooner than they did (“It only took 12 years”), even though (as updated) the first award WAS shared with a woman). HalSolo Interesting – I thought the first woman director for an animated film would have been Vicky Jenson for co-directing SHREK when it won in 2001, but turns out only the producer of the movie accepted the award that year. I was impressed Brenda got deserved credit after all the “controversy” surrounding her involvement. jonhanson So happy for her! Also the first I’ve heard of Vicky Jenson, I hate it when artists get cheated like that. Mesterius Ah, so THAT’s why Brave won the Oscar this year… because someone at the Academy finally realized it was time for them to recognize a film (co-)directed by a woman! That makes sense, actually. Because Brave was certainly not the best animated movie this year… both Paranorman and Wreck-It-Ralph were far superior. Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s wonderful that a woman finally wins the Oscar for best animated feature.

But I think it would have been more wonderful if it had been won for a movie which was *actually* a really great movie. Brave – in its finished, co-directed state – was a rather mediocre film, even more so when compared to its contenders. I still think a different movie should’ve won, but it is nice to see female animation workers getting more attention. BillCrystal To be fair, directed by a man or woman, not sure Brave encapsulates “diversity and fresh perspectives on storytelling” in many ways, one of Pixar’s weakest films to date. Paranorman was much more creative. And don’t get me started on Paperman. Toonio One word for that night-Redemption. Kirk Wise Woo-hoo! So happy for you Brenda! Recent Grad I agree that artists should receive awards based on talent, not gender, but if you think that that’s whats been going on all along, and that women haven’t had to fight for the opportunity to even become directors, then I think you are putting a very narrow viewpoint on what has happened. Getting recognition for good work is a victory for equality.

I’m not saying she deserves it for being a woman, or that women need special assistance or recognition, I’m saying that its about time women are getting the chance to achieve as directors, and I look forward to the day that women winning Oscars for directing is as common and unsurprising as men winning Oscars for directing. Same goes for people of all races and sexualities. Miles Thompson MAN! … i mean “WOMAN!” … Makes me so happy for Brenda and all women. The more things have changed the more they have stayed the same, this however is definitely a step in a new “direction” that deserves to be followed up with more creative opportunities for women. As the father of the planet’s most amazing daughter, this win fills ME with hope for ALL people everywhere ! ! ! Oscars fast facts Home » fastfacts » Oscars fast facts Oscars fast facts The shortest Oscar ceremony ever was the first, held in 1929; it lasted only about 15 minutes as all the winners had been announced three months earlier. The longest Oscar awards ceremony was in 2000, running for 4 hours and 16 minutes – beating a previous record by 16 minutes.

Bob Hope has hosted the Oscars 18 times; Billy Crystal is in second place with 8 times. Tom Hanks is the youngest recipient of the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which he received in 2002 at age 45. Kate Winslet received four Oscar nominations before reaching the age of 30. Elizabeth Taylor received four Oscar nominations before reaching the age of 28. Gone with the Wind, at 3 hours and 56 minutes, was the longest film to have won a Best Picture Oscar; it was also the first film in color to win Best Picture. The 1968 movie, War and Peace, was the longest film (431 minutes) to an Academy Award – for best Foreign picture. Julia Phillips was the first female producer to win Best Picture award, for The Sting (1973). The first female to win the Best Director award was Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008). Henry Fonda was first nominated for a Best Actor Oscar in 1941 for his role in The Grapes of Wrath but had to wait 41 years before he finally achieved a win in 1982 for his role in On Golden Pond.

At 76, he is the oldest actor yet to have received the Best Actor award. The oldest actress to win an Oscar is Jessica Tandy – at 81 she won the Best Actress Oscar in 1990 for her performance in Driving Miss Daisy. Anthony Quinn’s performance as painter Paul Gaugin in Lust for Life (1956) is the shortest ever to win a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award, his second Oscar. He was on screen for only 8 minutes. (He won a similar award in 1952 playing opposite Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata!) The shortest-ever winning performance for Best Supporting Actress belongs to Beatrice Straight, who won an Oscar in 1976 for her 5 minutes 40 seconds appearance as devastated wife Louise Schumacher in Network. Dame Judi Dench won an Oscar in 1998 for less than 8 minutes of screen time playing Queen Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love. The shortest-ever Best Actor Oscar-winning performance was awarded to David Niven in 1958, having appeared for only 15 minutes and 38 seconds in Separate Tables.

The second-shortest winning appearance was made by Anthony Hopkins in 1992, for less than 16 minutes of screen time as Dr Hannibal “The Cannibal” Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. In 1948, Jane Wyman won Best Actress award without uttering a word; she played the role of a deaf -mute person in the movie Johnny Belinda. The fewest lines actually spoken by an Oscar-winning actress won Patty Duke a Best Actress in a Supporting Role portraying the deaf and blind Helen Keller in the 1962 film The Miracle Worker. In the role she speaks only one word in the last scene: “Wah-wah” (for “water”). In 1993, Holly Hunter won a Best Actress Oscar for her role as a deaf person in the movie The Piano but she narrated a few scenes and does speak (although her face is covered) in the last scene of the film. The films with the most Oscar wins are Ben-Hur, Titanic and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, each winning 11 Oscars from 12, 14 and 11 nominations respectively. See more in the lists of Oscar winners .

In total, the Middle-earth series (The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Two Towers (2002) and The Return of the King (2003) – and the The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey) won 17 Oscars out of 33 nominations. William Wyler has directed more actors to Academy Award success than any other, with 34 nominations and 14 wins. Jack Nicholson leads the Best Actor Academy Award category with wins from 11 nominations, followed by Laurence Olivier, nominated 10 times and receiving one Best Actor award, and then Spencer Tracy with nine nominations resulting in two awards. Daniel Day-Lewis has won the most Best Actor awards, with 3 awards (1989, 2007, 2012). Meryl Streep had more Best Actress nominations than any other actress; 14 in total, leading to 3 awards. Katharine Hepburn received 12 nominations for Best Actress and won 4 Academy Awards. Shirley Temple is the youngest performer to receive an Academy Award; in 1934 she received a Special Award when she was only five years old.

Groucho Marx was the oldest Academy Award winner – in 1973 he received a Honorary Award at the age of 83. The first posthumous Oscar winner was Sidney Howard, for the screenplay of Gone with the Wind. Mutiny on The Bounty (1935) was the only film to have had three nominees for Best Actor Oscars (Charles Laughton, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone) but won only the Best Picture award. The only tie for Best Actor was between Wallace Beery for The Champ and Fredric March for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, in 1932. The only films to win Best Picture and Best Song are Gigi, Going My Way and Titanic. The first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar was Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, in 1991. The award went to Silence of the Lambs but Beauty and the Beast won 2 Oscars: Best Original Score and Best Original Song.

In 1937 Disney won a special Oscar for the first full-length animation: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Oscar families: Two families have three generations of Oscar winners in their ranks: The Huston family: Walter Huston won Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Treasure of Sierra Madre); John Huston won Best Director, The Treasure of Sierra Madre in 1948, and Anjlica Huston won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Prizzi’sHonorin 1985. The Hustons and the Coppolas are two families where the grandfather, father and daughter won Oscars.

The Coppola family: Carmine Coppola won Best Original Dramatic Score, The Godfather in 1974; Francis Ford Coppola won Best Original Screenplay for Patron (1970), Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather (1970), Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, The Godfather: Part II (1974), and Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation won for Best Original Screenplay in 2004; Nicholas Cage, Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew, won Best Actor for his role in Leaving Las Vegas, in 1995. The Minnelli family: Liza Minnelli is the only Oscar winner with two Oscar winning parents: her mother Judy Garland, received a honorary Oscar as Outstanding Juvenile Performer for The Wizard of Oz and her father, Vincente Minnelli, won Best Director for Best Picture, Gigi (1958). The Epstein family: The only twins to win Oscars are Julius J Epstein and Philip G Epstein, who shared the Best Screenplay award s with Howard Koch for Casablanca (1942).

12 actors to win an Oscar for playing a real person who was still alive at the evening of the Awards ceremony: Patty Duke playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker (1962) Spencer Tracy for playing Father Edward Flanagan in Boys Town (1938) Gary Cooper for playing Alvin C.

York in Sergeant York (1941) Jason Robards for playing Benjamin Bradlee in All the President’s Men (1976) Robert De Niro for playing Jake La Motta in Raging Bull (1980) Sissy Spacek for playing Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) Susan Sarandon for playing Sister Helen Prejean in Dead Man Walking (1995) Geoffrey Rush for playing David Helfgott in Shine (1996) Julia Roberts for playing Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich (2000) Jim Broadbent for playing John Bayley in Iris (2001) Jennifer Connelly for playing Alicia Nash in Beautiful Mind (2001) Helen Mirren for playing Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006) The Academy Awards and Oscars are trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Updated: March 2013 Academy Awards Best Director - Facts & Trivia Warren Beatty/Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978) (nominated) John Singleton for Boys N the Hood (1991) (nominated) Rob Marshall for Chicago (2002) (

nominated) Bennett Miller for Capote (2005) (nominated) Paul Haggis for Crash (2005) (nominated) Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) (nominated) Directors With Two Best Director Nominations in the Same Year: Only three directors have received two Best Director nominations in the same year: Michael Curtiz, for Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) and Four Daughters (1938) Steven Soderbergh for Erin Brockovich (2000) and Traffic (2000) (win) Duo Directing Teams Nominated for Best Director: Only four duo directing teams have been nominated for Best Director in Oscars history, and only twice have the duo-directors won: Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise for West Side Story (1961) - (win) - two Best Director Oscars were awarded to co-directors Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise; it marked the first time that awards went to co-directors.

The only Best Director Oscar winner to win for the only film he ever directed was also Jerome Robbins Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007) - (win) - the first time a sibling team had been nominated in the category, and the second directing duo to win Best Director Warren Beatty and Buck Henry for Heaven Can Wait (1978) Joel and Ethan Coen were again nominated as Best Director for True Grit (2010) The Director with the Most Film Nominations in a Single Year: Director W.S.

(Woody) Van Dyke holds the single-year record for the most films to receive Oscar nominations (7): Van Dyke directed The Thin Man (1934) that had four nominations (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Adaptation) Van Dyke directed Manhattan Melodrama (1934) that won Best Original Story Van Dyke directed Hide-out (1934) that was nominated for Best Original Story Van Dyke directed Eskimo (1934) that won Best Film Editing The Director with the Most Oscar Wins For Films in the Same Year: Director Steven Spielberg holds the record for the most Oscars wins for multiple films in the same year: Schindler's List (1993) - with 12 nominations (and 7 wins) African-American (Black) Best Director Nominees/Winners: No African-American (or black) has ever won Best Picture.

African-Americans (or blacks) nominated as Best Director include: John Singleton for Boyz N the Hood (1991) - the first Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009) - the second African-American nominated director; it was the first-ever Best Picture nominee to be directed by an African-American filmmaker British director Steve McQueen for Best Picture-winning 12 Years a Slave (2013) [Note: If McQueen had won Best Director, he would have been the first black filmmaker to win the title.] Spike Lee was never nominated for Best Director (only for screenwriting and documentary).

Female Directors: The Only Winner - and the Only Ones Nominated There have only been four female Best Director nominees: Italian film director Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties (1976, It.) - the first woman to be nominated for Best Director New Zealander Jane Campion for Best Picture-nominated The Piano (1993) Sofia Coppola for her Best Picture-nominated Lost in Translation (2003) - the first American woman nominated for Best Director and only the third woman ever to be nominated for Best Director Kathryn Bigelow for her Best Picture-nominated The Hurt Locker (2009) - the second American woman nominated as Best Director and only the fourth woman nominated in the category The only female Best Director winner: Kathryn Bigelow for Best Picture-winning The Hurt Locker (2009).

A number of films directed by women have been nominated for Best Picture (without corresponding Best Director nominations), including Randa Haines' Children of a Lesser God (1986), Penny Marshall's Awakenings (1990), Barbra Streisand's The Prince of Tides (1991), Valerie Faris' (with Jonathan Dayton) Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Lone Scherfig's An Education (2009), Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right (2010) and Debra Granik's Winter's Bone (2010). Foreign-Born Best Director Nominees and Winners: Note: Only a sampling of the most significant foreign-born directors are included here.

There are many others, either from the UK or other Central/Western European countries, such as Pedro Almodóvar (Spain), Roberto Benigni (Italy), Ingmar Bergman (Sweden), Bernardo Bertolucci (Italy), Federico Fellini (Italy), Costa-Gavras (Greece), Michael Curtiz (Austria-Hungary), Miloš Forman (Czech.), Lewis Milestone (Russia), Mike Nichols (Germany), Wolfgang Petersen (Germany), Billy Wilder (Austria-Hungary/Poland), William Wyler (Germany), and Fred Zinnemann (Austria-Hungary). There are numerous UK-born (includes NZ, and CAN) and French-born (FR) directors that have been nominated or have won: Michel Hazanavicius (FR), Tom Hooper, Danny Boyle, Peter Jackson (NZ), Roman Polanski (FR, but considered himself Polish), Sam Mendes, James Cameron (CAN), Anthony Minghella, Richard Attenborough, François Truffaut (FR), to name just a few.

Mexican film-maker Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu won his first Best Director Oscar for the Best Picture-winning Birdman (2014), and won Best Original Screenplay for the same film. The next year, he also won Best Director for Best Picture-nominated The Revenant (2015). He became the first person in 65 years and only the third ever to win back-to-back Best Director Oscars since Joseph L. Mankiewicz's A Letter To Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950) , and only the third in history, also after John Ford's The Grapes Of Wrath (1940) and How Green Was My Valley (1941) .

[Note: Inarritu had three previous Oscar nominations: Best Foreign Language Film Amores Perros (2000, Mex.), and Best Director/ Best Picture for Babel (2006).] The Mexican director became the fifth consecutive non-American to win Best Director, following Britisher Tom Hooper for The King's Speech (2010), Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist (2011), Taiwanese-born Ang Lee for Life of Pi (2012), and fellow Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity (2013). Mexican film director Alfonso Cuarón, although a three-time nominee, was nominated for the first time as Best Director, and won the Oscar for Gravity (2013). He was the first Mexican-born director to win Best Director. Ang Lee was the first Asian (or non-white) filmmaker to win Hollywood's main filmmaking honor for Brokeback Mountain (2005). He also won Best Director for Life of Pi (2012). He was also nominated as Best Director for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).

Other Asian Best Director nominees include Hiroshi Teshigahara for Woman in the Dunes (1964), Akira Kurosawa for Ran (1985), and M. Night Shyamalan for The Sixth Sense (1999). In 2012, German-born directorial nominee Michael Haneke was nominated as Best Director for Amour (2012, Austria). Frenchman Michel Hazanavicius won for The Artist (2011). In 2006, Alejandro González Iñárritu was the first Mexican director nominated for the top prize for Babel (2006). French film director Michel Hazanavicius was nominated for The Artist (2011). In the year 2006, the Mexican directing troika of Alejandro González Iñárritu, Guillermo del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron took a combined 16 nominations for their films Babel (2006) (with seven nominations), Pan's Labyrinth (2006) (with six nominations) and Children of Men (2006) (with three nominations), respectively.

For the 2004 awards, Brazilian-born Fernando Meirelles was nominated as Best Director for City of God (2002) (aka Cidade de Deus). The first Canadian to win Best Director was James Cameron, for Titanic (1997). In 1987, all five of the Best Director nominees were foreign-born: Bernardo Bertolucci (Italy) - the winner Lasse Hallstrom (Sweden) 2013 Best Director and Best Picture Correlations: There is a direct correlation between the Best Picture and Director awards. Usually, the film voted Best Picture has been directed by the person named (or at least nominated) as Best Director. In a number of cases, however, the Best Picture win went to one film and Best Director went to another even though the helmer of the big winner was nominated. Of the 88 films (through the year 2015) that have been awarded Best Picture, 63 have also been awarded Best Director. About a quarter of the time, however, in Academy history, the Best Picture and Best Director winners have been for different films.

The Oscars (through the year 2015) have split Best Picture and Best Director 24 times: see years 2015, 2013, 2012, 2005, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1989, 1981, 1972, 1967, 1956, 1952, 1951, 1949, 1948, 1940, 1937, 1936, 1935, 1931/32, 1930/31, 1928/29, 1927/28 (two Best Director co-winners didn't win Best Picture). In the first ten years of Oscar awards, seven of the first 10 Best Picture winners didn't include any honor for the directors beyond a nomination.

[The exceptions were in the years 1929/30, 1932/33, and 1934, when the Academy honored the director as Best Director for a corresponding Best Picture.] Here are some examples in more recent years (from 1967 onwards): The Graduate (1967) 1972: Francis Ford Coppola's multi-award winning The Godfather (1972) took Best Picture, while Bob Fosse won Best Director for Cabaret (1972) (Cabaret won eight Academy Awards  a record for the most Oscars won by a movie that didn't win Best Picture) 1981: director Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire (1981) won Best Picture, but Warren Beatty won Best Director for Reds (1981) 1989: director Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy (1989) won Best Picture, while Oliver Stone won Best Director for Born on the Fourth of July (1989) 1998: director John Madden's Shakespeare in Love (1998) won Best Picture, but Steven Spielberg won Best Director

 for Saving Private Ryan (1998) 2000: director Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000) won Best Picture, but Steven Soderbergh won Best Director for Traffic (2000) 2002: director Rob Marshall's Chicago (2002) won Best Picture, but Roman Polanski won Best Director for The Pianist (2002) 2005: director Paul Haggis' Crash (2005) won Best Picture, but Ang Lee won Best Director for Brokeback Mountain (2005) 2012: director Ben Affleck's Argo (2012) won Best Picture, but Ang Lee won Best Director for Life of Pi (2012) 2013: director Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013) won Best Picture, but Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for Gravity (2013) 2015: director Tom McCarthy's Spotlight (2015) won Best Picture, but Alejandro Iñárritu won Best Director for The Revenant (2015) It has often

 happened that a Best Director winner is not also honored with a simultaneous Best Picture win, especially in regards to John Ford and George Stevens.

John Ford won Best Director three times even though his film lost the big prize, and George Stevens had the same shock twice: 1935: John Ford won Best Director for The Informer (1935), while director Frank Lloyd's Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) won Best Picture 1940: John Ford won Best Director for 1956: George Stevens won Best Director for Giant (1956), while director Michael Anderson Sr.'s Around the World in 80 Days (1956) won Best Picture The Only Best Picture-Winning Films Without Best Director Nominations: It is very rare for a film to win the Best Picture Oscar while omitting the film's director from the Best Director nominations - this has happened only four times: 1927/28: Wings (1927/28) from un-nominated director William Wellman won Best Picture, while the Best Director award went to Frank Borzage for Seventh Heaven (1927/28) 1931/32: Grand Hotel (1931/32) , the Best Picture winner was directed by unnominated Edmund Goulding - Frank

 Borzage won Best Director for Bad Girl (1931/32) 1989: Driving Miss Daisy (1989) was the Best Picture winner, but its director Bruce Beresford was not nominated, while Oliver Stone won Best Director for Born on the Fourth of July (1989) 2012: Argo (2012) from un-nominated director Ben Affleck won Best Picture, while the Best Director award went to Ang Lee for Life of Pi (2012) The Only Films to Win Best Director Without a Best Picture Nomination: Two Arabian Knights (1927/28), not nominated for Best Picture, but Lewis Milestone won Best Director (Comedy) The Divine Lady (1928/29), not nominated for Best Picture, but Frank Lloyd won Best Director The Most Best Picture Nominations: William Wyler - the Winning-est Best Picture Director Up until 2015, William Wyler held the record for the most nominations and wins for his films in all categories: 127 nominations and 39 awards.

Half of the nominations he received were in the major categories of Best Picture, Acting, and Directing. With his Best Picture nomination for Bridge of Spies (2015), Spielberg's films have now earned 128 nominations, the most of any director of all time, passing up William Wyler (127). William Wyler holds the record for directing more Best Picture nominees (13) and more Best Picture winners (3) than anyone else. His 13 Best Picture-nominated and winning films (marked with *) were: 26 years (and 279 days) Orson Welles for 29 years (and 66 days) Kenneth Branagh for Henry V (1989) 29 years (and 113 days) Claude Lelouch for A Man and a Woman (1966) 29 years (and 193 days) M.

Night Shyamalan for The Sixth Sense (1999) 29 years (and 281 days) George Lucas for American Graffiti (1973) 30 years (and 88 days) Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) 30 years (and 95 days) Jason Reitman for Juno (2007) 30 years (and 116 days) Spike Jonze for Being John Malkovich (1999) 31 years (and 65 days) [Note: the youngest woman ever to earn a nomination, 32-year old Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003).] Runner-Ups: 33 years (and 228 days) Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Nights (1927/28) 34 years (and 238 days) Sam Mendes for American Beauty (1999) 35 years (and 23 days) Frank Borzage for 7th Heaven (1927/28) 35 years (and 36 days) Lewis

 Milestone for 35 years (and 313 days) Tony Richardson for Tom Jones (1963) 36 years (and 1 day) Francis Ford Coppola for 78 years (and 193 days) Charles Crichton for A Fish Called Wanda (1988) 76 years (and 357 days) Robert Altman for Gosford Park (2001) 76 years (and 318 days) David Lean for A Passage to India (1984) 76 years (and 237 days) Clint Eastwood for Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) 76 years (and 54 days) Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris (2011) 75 years (and 319 days) Akira Kurosawa for Ran (1985) 74 years (and 239 days) Clint Eastwood for Million Dollar Baby (2004) 73 years (and 241 days) Clint Eastwood for Mystic River (2003) 71 years (and 181 days)

 Cecil B.

DeMille for The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) Runner-Ups: 69 years (and 217 days) Roman Polanski for The Pianist (2002) 65 years (and 272 days) 64 years (and 100 days) Martin Scorsese for The Departed (2006) 62 years (and 302 days) Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven (1992) 62 years (and 105 days) Carol Reed for Oliver!

(1968) 59 years (and 346 days) Fred Zinnemann for A Man For All Seasons (1966) 59 years (and 225 days) Richard Attenborough for Gandhi (1982) 59 years (and 46 days) John Ford for Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar - Mar 07, 2010 - HISTORY.com Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar Share this: Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar Author Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar URL Publisher A+E Networks On this day in 2010, Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director, for her movie “The Hurt Locker,” about an American bomb squad that disables explosives in Iraq in 2004.

Prior to Bigelow, only three women had been nominated for a best director Oscar: Lina Wertmueller for 1975’s “Seven Beauties,” Jane Campion for 1993’s “The Piano” and Sofia Coppola for 2003’s “Lost in Translation.” Born in San Carlos, California, in 1951, Bigelow graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1972 and later earned a master’s degree in film from Columbia University. She made her feature film debut with 1982’s “The Loveless,” which she co-wrote and co-directed. The film, about a motorcycle gang, starred Willem Dafoe. The next movie Bigelow directed, 1987’s “Near Dark,” was a western-horror hybrid that gained a cult following. She went on to helm 1990’s “Blue Steel,” starring Jamie Lee Curtis as a police officer stalked by a killer, and 1991’s “Point Break,” about bank-robbing surfers, featuring Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves.

Bigelow’s other directing credits include 1995’s “Strange Days” with Ralph Fiennes, 2000’s “The Weight of Water” with Sean Penn and 2002’s “K-19: The Widowmaker” with Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson. At the 82nd Academy Awards in March 2010, Bigelow’s fellow best-director nominees included James Cameron (“Avatar”), whom she was married to from 1989 to 1991, along with Lee Daniels (“Precious”), Jason Reitman (“Up in the Air”) and Quentin Tarantino (“Inglorious Basterds”). After making history by winning the directing prize, Bigelow said, “I hope I’m the first of many [women], and of course, I’d love to just think of myself as a filmmaker. And I long for the day when that modifier can be a moot point.” Her movie “The Hurt Locker,” which starred Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty, also won Oscars for best picture, film editing, sound editing, sound mixing and original screenplay.

Related Videos Kathryn Bigelow - Awards - IMDb Kathryn Bigelow Showing all 83 wins and 55 nominations Academy Awards, USA Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director. Golden Globes, USA David Lean Award for Direction Best Director David Lean Award for Direction Best Director Megan Ellison ZERO DARK THIRTY is a fierce meditation on modern warfare - a film that keeps audiences breathless,... More ZERO DARK THIRTY is a fierce meditation on modern warfare - a film that keeps audiences breathless, even though the ending is history. Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal chronicle the world's greatest manhunt with the electric intensity of a glance, the politics of personality and the very real question of what it takes to find the truth. Jessica Chastain drives the story forward with an enormity of purpose, again demonstrating her place among today's brightest talents. ZERO DARK THIRTY is a definitive tale of our times, where the battle waged is one of intellect over arms. From Hattie to The Help From Hattie to The Help A History of African-Americans at the Oscars by Jennie Wood Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Oscar.

RELATED LINKS Movie Awards On February 29, 1940, Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American actor to win an Academy Award. The Oscar, for Best Supporting Actress, was for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind. Since that historic win, the film, the novel on which it was based, and McDaniel have all been subjects of backlash and controversy, especially in regards to how Mammy typified racial stereotypes. However, McDaniel's accomplishment should not be lost in the controversy. On the night she won, McDaniel and her escort were seated at a segregated table for two, away from her fellow Gone with the Wind cast members. Two months before that Oscar ceremony, McDaniel wasn't allowed to attend the premiere of Gone with the Wind in Atlanta, GA due to Georgia's segregationist laws. Winning an Oscar at that time was an extraordinary achievement. McDaniel's breakthrough also stands out because it would be over twenty years before another African-American actor would take home an Oscar. In 1963, Sidney Poitier became the first African-American to win a Best Actor Academy Award. He won for his portrayal of Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field.

Later, in 2002, Poitier also received a special Oscar for his body of work as an actor. Thirty-Eight Year Gap Even though Whoopi Goldberg (1990), Cuba Gooding, Jr. (1996), Louis Gossett Jr. (1982), and Denzel Washington (1989) won Best Supporting Oscars, 38 years would go by before another African-American won Best Actor. In 2001, Washington won for Training Day. The 2001 Oscars turned out to be record-breaking for multiple reasons. That same year Halle Berry became the first African-American woman to win the Best Actress Oscar. She won for her role as Leticia Musgrove in Monster's Ball. It was also the first time two African-Americans took home both Best Acting honors.

Since Berry and Washington both took home statuettes in 2001, the following African-American actors have won Oscars: Jamie Foxx (Best Actor, 2004, Ray), Morgan Freeman (Best Supporting Actor, 2004 Million Dollar Baby), Forest Whitaker (Best Actor, 2006, The Last King of Scotland), Jennifer Hudson (Best Supporting Actress, 2006, Dreamgirls) and Mo'Nique (Best Supporting Actress, 2009, Precious). As of 2011, a total of thirteen African-American actors had taken home Academy Awards. Here Comes The Help Two more African-American actors were nominated for Oscars in 2012. For her role as Aibileen Clark in The Help, Viola Davis was nominated for Best Actress. She had a lot of stiff competition, especially Meryl Streep , who had her seventeenth nomination, this time for playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Streep ended up taking home the Oscar. In the Best Supporting Actress category, Octavia Spencer was nominated, also for The Help. Spencer took home the Oscar.

With the two nominations, The Help became the third film in the Academy's history to feature African-American nominees for both Best Actress and Supporting Actress. The two previous films were The Color Purple and Precious. Even though more and more actors are being recognized for their work, an African-American director has yet to win an Oscar. In fact, only two directors have been nominated, John Singleton in 1991 for Boyz n the Hood and Lee Daniels in 2009 for Precious. The Oscars are known for being notoriously slow to change. It took until 2010 for a woman, Kathryn Bigelow , to win the Oscar for Best Director. Looking back at Hattie McDaniel's historic win, during a ceremony where she wasn't allowed to sit with her Gone With the Wind co-stars, it's clear to see how the Oscars, like American society, has progressed slowly over the years. Many argue that the progress has been too slow. In 2016, the Academy failed for a second consecutive year to nominate any African-American actors in the major acting categories, prompting many to speak out. Director Spike Lee and actor Jada Pinkett Smith called for a boycott of the 2016 ceremony.

At a Jan. 2016 Academy gala, actor David Oyelowo said, "The Academy has a problem. It's a problem that needs to be solved. For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of color, actresses of color, to be missed last year is one thing; for that to happen again this year is unforgivable."

Question: Who was the first woman to win a Best Director 'Oscar'?
Answer: Kathryn Bigelow