Oscars 2010: Kathryn Bigelow becomes first woman to win best director as Hurt Locker blasts ex-husband's Avatar with six gongs | Daily Mail Online Oscars 2010: Kathryn Bigelow becomes first woman to win best director as Hurt Locker blasts ex-husband's Avatar with six gongs By BAZ BAMIGBOYE Bad night for James Cameron's $300m Avatar as it wins three low-key awards Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges win Best Actress and Best Actor Brits Helen Mirren, Colin Firth and Carey Mulligan miss out on big prizes Mo'Nique takes gong for Best Supporting Actress in Precious Kathryn Bigelow made history last night after becoming the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director - and trounced her ex-husband in the process. Her Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker scooped six Oscars, including Best Picture, while Avatar, directed by James Cameron, won only three minor gongs. Avatar - the highest grossing film ever having already taken $2billion worldwide at the box office - won only for art direction, cinematography and visual effects.

Trophies also went to runaway favourites Sandra Bullock, Best Actress for American football drama The Blind Side and Jeff Bridges, who collected the Best Actor award for his part in the country musical Crazy Heart. Scroll down to watch MailOnline video reports Making history: Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war drama film The Hurt Locker won six Oscars. She is the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director, seen on stage last night at the 82nd Academy Awards Delighted: Screenwriter Mark Boal (left) and producer Greg Shapiro backstage with five of the six awards the movie raked in As she opened the envelope Barbra Streisand declared: 'It's about time', and then read Kathryn Bigelow's name for best director. Avatar had been widely expected to follow in the footsteps of Cameron's epic, Titanic, which won 11 Oscars in 1998.. As the Best Director award was announced, Cameron patted Bigelow on the back - she was sitting directly in front of him in the auditorium - and broke out into wild applause. She said on receiving the directing award: 'This really is, there’s no way to describe it.

It’s the moment of a lifetime.' The director paid tribute to the work of members of the audience she had admired for decades. And praised the screenplay as 'courageous'. No hard feelings: James Cameron reacts to his ex-wife Kathryn's film winning one of six Oscars Applause: Cameron, sat behind his ex-wife, looked pleased as Avatar wins the Oscar for Cinematography Congratulations: But Bigelow beat her former husband hands down, with Cameron seen left jokingly moving his hands towards her neck and, right, the pair embrace She said: 'I would not be standing here if it wasn’t for Mark Boal, who risked his life for the words on the page.' And she dedicated the award to 'the people who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan....may they come home safe.' Backstage she spoke about becoming the first female director to win: 'First of all, I hope I'm the first of many. 'And, of course, I'd love to just think of myself as a filmmaker, and I long for the day when a modifier can be a moot point.

'But I'm ever grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious male or female filmmaker and have them feel that the impossible is possible and never give up on your dream,' Bigelow said. Bigelow was the third of Cameron's five wives between 1989-1991 but the situation between them is very amicable and they have traded pleasantries at every stage of this year's award season. Sandra Bullock collects her award for best actress for the American football drama The Blind Side while Jeff Bridges makes his acceptance speech after being named best actor for musical film Crazy Heart As the victory turned into a procession of awards, Cameron joked as if to strangle his ex-wife before giving her a generous hug. It had become clear when The Hurt Locker, which had a budget of just $11million, clinched Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing that it was in with a shout of the top prize. The drama about a U.S. bomb disposal unit in Iraq did not fare so well at the box office and has just gone to DVD in the UK, but it caught on with the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Picture Arts and Sciences.

And that despite producer Nicholas Chartrier being banned from the ceremony for sending an email to voters asking them not to vote for Avatar. Some Oscar voters may have taken against what some felt was an arrogance about 55-year-old Cameron. Graceful: Kate Winslet, who last year won best actress, presented Bridges with his award He made a public statement that it would be okay for Bigelow, 58, to win Best Director but that he should be given Best Picture to honour all his colleagues who worked on the sci-fi classic. The Academy clearly had other ideas. Bigelow dedicated the award to serving members of the military and said that she hoped she would be the first of many female directors to win best director Oscars. She said, 'It was a humbling experience' to be in the same category as Cameron and the other directors - but she remained dignified and wouldn't be drawn into directly commenting on Cameron.

Grand: The best actor and best actress nominees line up inside the venue at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles On-stage appearance: British star Carey Mulligan failed to win best actress for An Education, seen earlier in the night with Avatar actress Zoe Saldana presenting the gong for best short film The other race that captured the most attention was best actress. Would it go to Meryl Streep, nominated for the 16th time but who hasn't won since 1982? Or to Sandra Bullock known as the 'prom queen', for The Blind Side? When Bullock won even she allowed herself some humility. She knows she's a good actress but not always the Best Actress. She plays the role of Leigh Anne Tuohy in American football drama which follows the story of Michael Oher (played by Quinton Aaron), a homeless and traumatised boy who became an All-American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman (Bullock) and her family.

Good friends really: Bullock beat British competitor Helen Mirren to win the best actress award, while fellow Brit Colin Firth, seen with wife Livia Giuggioli, also lost out on the best actor award to Bridges Flashbulb frenzy: Sandra Bullock arrives at the ceremony in her stunning floor-length gown 'Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?' Bullock, stunning in a silver column gown from British designers Marchesa, praised her fellow nominees: 'Four of them that I've fallen deeply in love with I share this night with and I share this award with. 'Gabby, I love you so much. You are exquisite. You are beyond words to me. Carey, your grace and your elegance and your beauty and your talent makes me sick. 'Helen, I feel like we are family through family and I don't have the words to express just what I think of you. And Meryl, you know what I think of you and you are such a good kisser.

Mo'Nique wins best supporting actress for her role in Precious and, right, Christoph Waltz took best supporting actor for Inglourious Basterds Rare victory: Designer Sandy Powell was one of only two British winners, for Best Costume Design for The Young Victoria 'I have so many people to thank for my good fortune in this lifetime and this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I know. To the family that allowed me to play them, the Tuohy family, I know they're in here and you'll probably hear her in a minute.' On Saturday night Bullock had showed she was a good sport by collecting in person her Worst Actress award at the infamous pre-Oscar Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Awards. She picked up the award for her other film of 2009 All About Steve and thanked the voters for 'ruining my career'. Back at the Oscars and veteran Jeff Bridges claimed Best Actor for playing a drunken country singer in musical drama Crazy Heart. The son of Hollywood star Lloyd Bridges held his trophy high over his head, looking to the heavens and thanking his deceased parents. 'Mom and Dad, yeah,' he shouted.

'Thank you Mom and Dad for turning me on to such a groovy profession.' Mo'Nique received a standing ovation as she collected the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the gritty film Precious, which also features Mariah Carey, about an illiterate and pregnant young girl in Brooklyn. Escorted: Best actor nominee Morgan Freeman still had his left arm in a gloved support following a recent car accident, pictured with Invictus producer Lori McCreary (left) and his daughter Morgana Freeman Actor Robin Williams came on stage to present the gong, making it two in a row for the gritty drama. Just prior, i had won Best Adapted Screenplay, adapted by Geoffrey Fletcher from the book Push. Mo'Nique, who played the role of an abusive parent in the flick, thanked the Academy as she collected her first Oscar for making it 'about the performance and not the politics'.

Hosts: Steve Martin (left) and Alec Baldwin presented the show, seen here surrounded by scantily-clad women Feeling blue: Ben Stiller dressed up as a member of the Na'vi tribe from the film Avatar to present the award for best make-award which went to Mindy Hall of Star Trek AND THE WINNERS ARE... 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 ! ! ! 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. 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: 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 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 Best Women Film Directors and Movies Directed by Women - Metacritic Mind the gap More than all right Admittedly, we shouldn't have to publish this article.

But even in a year where a woman took home the Academy Award for best director (for the first time), female filmmakers still aren't getting the same recognition or opportunities that male directors do. When Kathryn Bigelow collected her Oscar trophy earlier this year, she did so as only the fourth woman ever nominated in the director category. But the Academy certainly isn't the only organization to overlook female directors; Bigelow is also the only female to win BAFTA and DGA awards as top director, and Barbra Streisand is the only female Golden Globe-winning director. The Cannes Film Festival also has a poor record in recognizing the achievements of women directors, and this year the festival came under fire when not a single one of the 18 films selected for the main competition were directed by women. And this lack of recognition does not stem from a lack of quality films. While Christopher Nolan's Inception 76 may be getting all the buzz, two of this summer's most acclaimed American films -- with some of the best reviews for any film this year -- were directed by women: Debra Granik's Winter's Bone 90 and Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right 86.

(Only Toy Story 3 91 has a higher Metascore among this summer's dramatic films.) As we shall see in a moment, these are far from the only critically acclaimed titles from women filmmakers. Women directors, of course, aren't limited to directing critically-acclaimed indie dramas -- or even films geared toward female moviegoers. For decades, women have been directing in genres ranging from comedy (Martha Coolidge's Real Genius, Penelope Spheeris' Wayne's World , Penny Marshall's Big ) and horror (Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary) to animation (Vicky Jenson's Shrek ) and sports (Gurinder Chadha's Bend It Like Beckham ). Female directors have even made their mark in the "major box office flop" category (Elaine May's Ishtar ). However, not every genre has been open to directors of all genders; for example, few women other than Bigelow or Mimi Leder ( Deep Impact ) have ever had the opportunity to direct an action film. And opportunities for women directors in any genre are still relatively rare.

San Diego State University's Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film routinely reports on trends in the industry, and their findings confirm a major disparity: just 7% of last year's 250 top-grossing films were directed by women. That percentage is actually a decline of two points compared to 2008, and the number has held steady within that 7% - 9% range for the past 25 years. The gender disparity extends, though not quite as severely, to all behind-the-camera crew positions and even to film critics . We won't be exploring the possible reasons why such a disparity exists here; instead, our focus is on the work turned out by these women directors over the past 30 years. The directors Which women directors have made the most of these limited opportunities? Below, we look at the average Metascores for the more prolific female filmmakers of the past three decades. We're only covering dramatic films here, so noted documentarians like Ondi Timoner, Barbara Kopple, and Agnès Varda are not included.

(Documentary films are actually the one genre where the number of female filmmakers is comparable to that of male directors.) Films released prior to 1980 are also excluded from the averages. Metascore Averages for Women Directors (Min. 3 Scored Films in Database) Director Among the director's critic-unfriendly films are the 1998 drug comedy Half Baked 16 Excludes documentary films. Directors are ranked by average Metascore prior to rounding. * Adjusted for inflation; U.S. grosses only. Source for box office data: Box Office Mojo . ** One of the director's films is still playing in theaters. Box office data accurate as of July 15, 2010.

Other prominent women directors of the past 30 years not listed above (because many or all of their movies do not have Metascores) include Allison Anders (Gas, Food, Lodging), Antonia Bird (Priest), Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl), Marleen Gorris (Antonia's Line), Randa Haines (Children of a Lesser God), Beeban Kidron (To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar), Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary), Sally Potter (Orlando), Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan), and Barbra Streisand (Prince of Tides). Also note that Kathryn Bigelow, Amy Heckerling. Agnieszka Holland, Penny Marshall, Mira Nair, and Penelope Spheeris have many older films without Metascores; thus, their score averages indicated above paint an incomplete picture of the quality of their films. Here are the top women directors from a commercial standpoint: Highest Lifetime Cumulative Box Office Grosses for Women Directors * Adjusted for inflation; U.S. grosses only. Source for box office data: Box Office Mojo . Films directed by women First, let's see how films from women directors have performed at the box office.

According to a recent report by INDIEwire , only seven of the 241 films with domestic grosses of $100m or more over the past decade were directed or co-directed by women. Why are so few women directors represented on the box office leaderboard? According to another study from San Diego State University, the reason is that women rarely get the chance to direct big budget films: "When women and men filmmakers have similar budgets for their films, the resulting box office grosses are also similar." Here are the best-performing films directed by women over the past 30 years. Note that all box office figures are adjusted for inflation to make comparing films released across different years a bit easier. Highest-Grossing* Movies Directed by Women (Since 1980) Academy Awards Best Pictures - Facts & Trivia Stanley 'Stosh' in The Deer Hunter (1978) Box Office: Lowest Grossing Best Picture In recent times since the advent of modern box-office tabulations, Best Director-winning Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker (2009) was the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner of all time.

Its domestic gross earnings were $12.6 million at the time of its nomination, and only $14.7 at the time of its award. Color and Black and White Best Pictures: Gone With the Wind (1939) was the first all-color film that won the Best Picture Oscar. [Note: Broadway Melody (1928/29) contained only a few sequences shot in two-color (red/green) Technicolor.] The next four Best Picture color films were: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Schindler's List (1993) was the first black-and-white film (although it had a few short segments in color) to win the top award since the all B&W The Apartment (1960) . The Artist (2011) was the last entirely B/W film to win Best Picture. Only one Best Picture-winning film was originally a TV comedy drama: the black and white Marty (1955) .

[It was also the second Best Picture Oscar winner to also win the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or - the first to win the top prize was The Lost Weekend (1945) .] The first time all five Best Picture nominees were shot in color was 1956. The first film to be released on home video before winning Best Picture was The Silence of the Lambs (1991) . Foreign-Language Film Best Pictures Nominees: It should be noted that 1956 was the first year that the regular competitive category of Best Foreign Language Film was introduced. Foreign-language films would no longer be recognized with only a Special Achievement Honorary Award or with a Best Picture nomination (as in 1938) - see below. The first non-English (foreign language) film to be nominated for Best Picture was Grand Illusion (1938). To date, none of the nominated foreign-language films won the Best Picture Oscar.

The only foreign-language films nominated for Best Picture include: Grand Illusion (1938, France) # Nominee for both Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture * Winner of Best Foreign Language Film Five films have the double honor of both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film nominations: Z (1969), The Emigrants (1972), Life is Beautiful (1998), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), and Amour (2012). The Emigrants (1972) was the only one of the five to receive the nominations in different years, and was the only one of the five to not receive the award for Best Foreign-Language Film. Bertolucci's Chinese/Italian-produced Best Picture winner The Last Emperor (1987) was not a Foreign-Language Film nominee. So far, three partly 'foreign-language' films have won Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) The Best Foreign Language Film Category: In 1956, the regular competitive Oscar category of Best Foreign Language Film was introduced (the first award was actually presented at the 29th Academy Awards ceremony held in the spring of 1957).

Currently, Italy has the most Best Foreign Language Film Oscars - a total of 11 Oscars and 3 Honorary or Special Awards. [Second place is France with 9 Oscars, and Spain with 4 Oscars.] Italy broke its own record for number of Best Foreign Language Film nominations with its 28th for The Great Beauty (2013), the year's winner. The first winner in the new category of Best Foreign Language Film was Federico Fellini's La Strada (1956).

Italian director Fellini holds the honor of most Oscar wins (4) for Best Foreign Language Film as a director, for: La Strada (1956) 8 1/2 (1963) Amarcord (1974) If Special Oscars were also considered (awarded before the Best Foreign Language Film category was created), Fellini shares his record of 4 wins with Italian director Vittorio De Sica, who won Special Honorary awards for Shoeshine (1946) (win in 1947) and The Bicycle Thief (1948) (win in 1949), and Oscars for Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963) (win in 1964), and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970) (win in 1971).

Besides Fellini's four Oscar wins and De Sica's two Oscar wins, the other five Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winners for Italy include: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970) Cinema Paradiso (1989) Life is Beautiful (1998) The Great Beauty (2013) The Italian film The Battle of Algiers (1966) was the only film that earned nominations in two non-consecutive years: Best Foreign Language Film nominee in 1966 Best Adapted Screenplay nominee in 1968 Foreign-language films with the most Oscar nominations include: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - 10 nominations, 4 wins Life is Beautiful (1998) - 7 nominations, 3 wins Fanny and Alexander (1983) - 6 nominations, 4 wins Pan's Labyrinth (2006) - 6 nominations, 3 wins Das Boot (1982) - 6 nominations, 0 wins Amour (2012) - 5 nominations, 1 win Best Picture Genre Biases: There are obvious biases in the selection of Best Picture winners by the

 Academy.

Serious dramas or social-problem films with weighty themes, bio-pictures (inspired by real-life individuals or events), or films with literary pretensions are much more likely to be nominated than "popcorn" movies. Action-adventures, suspense-thrillers, Westerns, and comedies are mostly overlooked (although there are exceptions), as are independent productions. See Analysis of Best Picture Genre Biases here.

Remakes (or Retellings), Sequel 'Best Pictures' and Trilogies: MGM's Best Picture winner Mutiny On the Bounty (1935) was influenced by the semi-documentary In the Wake of the Bounty (1933, Australia) which starred Errol Flynn in his movie debut as Fletcher Christian; both films were based upon the 1932 novel Mutiny on the Bounty by Nordoff and Hall; the same story was remade as Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) with Marlon Brando (it lost its Best Picture nomination) Best Picture winner Ben-Hur (1959) was a retelling/remake of the silent era's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) - both were based upon Lew Wallace's 1880 novel Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ Martin Scorsese's Best Picture crime thriller The Departed (2006), a remake of Infernal Affairs (2002, HK), was the sole Best Picture winner to have been based on another film Best Picture nominee Pygmalion (1938) was remade as the Best Picture-winning My Fair Lady (19

64) other examples of Best Picture nominees (that lost) that had the same film titles: Ernst Lubitsch's Heaven Can Wait (1943) could be paired with Here Comes Mr.

Jordan (1941) because the latter was remade as Heaven Can Wait (1978); Moulin Rouge (1952) (a biopic of the painter Toulouse-Lautrec starring José Ferrer) had the same title as Moulin Rouge (2001) (a musical); and Best Picture nominee The Maltese Falcon (1941) was a remake of the 1931 version of the same name Cleopatra (1934) was remade with the same title: Cleopatra (1963) - both were nominated for Best Picture three versions of Shakespeare's tragic romantic tale were nominated for Best Picture: Romeo and Juliet (1936), the derivative the second film trilogy to have all three of its parts nominated for Best Picture was Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) , The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) (both lost), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) (which won Best Picture); it was the only threequel to have its third installment win the top

 prize Longest and Shortest: It remains a very close call, a tie virtually, between the top two 'longest' Best Pictures: the total film time (without music) of Gone With The Wind (1939) is almost 221 minutes (3 hours, 41 minutes), and with the Overture, Intermission, Entr'acte, and Walkout Music, it reaches 234 minutes (3 hours, 54 minutes).

The total film time (without music) of the "original" Lawrence of Arabia (1962) is just over 222 minutes (3 hours, 42 minutes), slightly longer, while its additional elements extended the film to about 232 minutes (3 hours, 52 minutes). If just counting the film itself, Lawrence of Arabia is the longest of the two contenders. [Other longest Best Picture winners in order: 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

Question: Who was the first female film director to win a best film Oscar?
Answer: Kathryn Bigelow