Oscar and the Women

If Kathryn Bigelow takes home the best director Oscar for her Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker on 7 March, she will become the first woman ever to win best director.

If Kathryn Bigelow takes home the best director Oscar for her Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker on 7 March, she will become the first woman ever to win best director. Indeed, Bigelow is only the fourth woman to be nominated in the 82-year history of the awards. A brief introduction to the four ladies who made the director’s cut:

The first was Italian-language filmmaker Lina Wertmuller, nominated in 1976 for Seven Beauties. Wertmuller, who assisted Federico Fellini on 8-1/2,  lost to John G Avildsen for Rocky.

In 1993, New Zealander Jane Campion was nominated for The Piano, a period drama about a mute pianist and her relationship with her daughter.  Though Campion won the Oscar for original screenplay, she lost her direction trophy to Steven Spielberg for Schindler’s List.

In 2004, Sofia Coppola was nominated for Lost in Translation. Daughter of multiple Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, she took home the award for original screenplay, losing her director’s prize to Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Kathryn Bigelow is known for action films, having directed the slick thrillers Near Dark and Blue Steel. Her main competitors  are ex-husband James Cameron for Avatar and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds.

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Sohini Chattopadhyay