Kathryn Bigelow is a landmark filmmaker who was the first woman to ever win an Academy Award for Best Director, winning with her movie “The Hurt Locker” (2008). She began her career co-writing and co-directing “The Loveless” (1981), which was a breakthrough role for actor Willem Defoe. She made a name for herself directing action and thriller movies such as “Blue Steel” (1990), “Point Break” (1991), “Strange Days” (1995), and “K-19: The Widowmaker” (2002), starring Harrison Ford. Bigelow is perhaps best known for “Zero Dark Thirty” (2012), a dramatization of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, a movie that solidified her reputation as one of America’s foremost filmmakers. She won an Emmy Award for her role as executive producer on the Netflix documentary “Catel Land” (2015) and went on to direct “Detroit” (2017), written by her frequent collaborator Mark Boal. She executive produced “Triple Frontier” (2019) and directed an all-star cast led by Rebecca Ferguson and Idris Elba in “A House of Dynamite” (2025).