Trivia

Competed with ex-husband James Cameron for the Best Director Oscar in 2010. This marked the first time that (ex-) spouses were nominated alongside each other in this category. She went on to win the award--the first woman director to do so.

In 2010, she became the first woman in Oscar history to win the Best Director award.

On March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, CA, her Best Director Oscar statuette for The Hurt Locker (2008) was presented to her by Barbra Streisand, the only woman ever to have won the Golden Globe for Best Director.

Hung out with Susan Sontag and Philip Glass when she first came to New York City in 1970. She and Glass even collaborated on a business venture where they bought old loft places in Soho and Tribeca, renovated them and then sold them. She says she was often the one who sanded the floors.

As of 2018 she has directed two actors to Academy Award-nominated performances: Jeremy Renner (Best Actor, The Hurt Locker (2008)), and Jessica Chastain (Best Actress, Zero Dark Thirty (2012)).

When she sent an unfinished short feature to Columbia University's film school, director Milos Forman--then serving as a professor there--found it impressive enough to offer her a scholarship. She graduated from Columbia in 1979.

Taught at the California Institute of the Arts.

As of 2018 she was the fifth woman to be nominated for the Directing Academy Award. The other four were: Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola and Greta Gerwig. Bigelow ended up becoming the first woman to win the award.

Her favorite films are The Wild Bunch (1969), Mean Streets (1973), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Terminator (1984) as well as the collective works of Alfred Hitchcock.

First woman to win the Directors Guild of America Award for directing a feature film (for The Hurt Locker (2008)).

The American Cinematheque honored Bigelow by showing all of her films at The Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, June 5-7 2009.

First woman to win a BAFTA Award for Best Director.

Member of the 'Dramatic' jury at the Sundance International Film Festival in 1990.

The 2010 Santa Barbara International Film Festival hosted "A Celebration of Kathryn Bigelow", which featured a retrospective of her work.

She has works in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection, including Near Dark (1987), a 1987 feature-length film, and her personal paper archive.

She has directed one film that has been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Hurt Locker (2008).

Decided to offer Jessica Chastain the lead role in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) after Ralph Fiennes showed her a rough cut of Coriolanus (2011).

In 2010 she was named one of "Time" magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World.

From July 1-13, 2009, the Harvard Film Archive hosted a retrospective of her career, showing all of her films from The Loveless (1981) to The Hurt Locker (2008). The retrospective was titled "Take It To The Edge: The Films Of Kathryn Bigelow" and featured a Q&A session with her.

Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 55th Venice International Film Festival in 1998.

Received a Dallas Star award from the AFI Dallas film festival in 2009.

Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 54th Berlin International Film Festival in 2003.

Visited Argentina to promote The Hurt Locker (2008) at the 23rd Mar del Plata International Film Festival in 2008.

Ex-sister-in-law of Mike Cameron.