# List of awards and nominations received by Kathryn Bigelow
[Kathryn Bigelow](https://www.edgepedia.org/kathryn-bigelow), the American director born in 1951 in San Carlos, California, has received industry honors spanning the Academy Awards, the BAFTA Awards, the [Primetime Emmy Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/primetime-emmy-awards), festival prizes, and critics' group awards, with IMDb listing 88 wins and 71 nominations for her work overall.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) Her landmark recognition came for *The Hurt Locker* (2008): on March 7, 2010, she became the first woman to win the [Academy Award for Best Director](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-award-for-best-director).[2](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/March-7/kathryn-bigelow-becomes-the-first-female-director-to-win-an-oscar)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Academy Awards | Two wins: Best Achievement in Directing and Best Motion Picture of the Year (shared), both for *The Hurt Locker* at the 2010 ceremony; also a 2013 Best Picture nomination for *Zero Dark Thirty*[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) |
| Historic first | First woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director, announced March 7, 2010[2](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/March-7/kathryn-bigelow-becomes-the-first-female-director-to-win-an-oscar) |
| BAFTA Awards | 2010 wins for Best Film and the David Lean Award for Direction, both for *The Hurt Locker*; 2013 nominations for *Zero Dark Thirty*[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) |
| Golden Globe Awards | Two nominations for Best Director – Motion Picture: *The Hurt Locker* (2010) and *Zero Dark Thirty* (2013)[3](https://goldenglobes.com/person/kathryn-bigelow/) |
| Primetime Emmy | 2016 winner, Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, as executive producer of *Cartel Land*[4](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/kathryn-bigelow) |
| Saturn Awards | Winner for Best Director for *Strange Days* (1996); nominations for *Near Dark* (1988) and *The Hurt Locker* (2010)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) |
| Festival honors | Four awards for *The Hurt Locker* at the 2008 Venice Film Festival; 2025 Golden Lion nomination for *A House of Dynamite*[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) |
## Academy Awards
At the 82nd Academy Awards in March 2010, Bigelow won both Best Achievement in Directing and, as a shared producer credit with Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier, and Greg Shapiro, Best Motion Picture of the Year for *The Hurt Locker*.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) Her fellow Best Director nominees that night included [James Cameron](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-cameron) (*Avatar*), whom she was married to from 1989 to 1991, along with [Lee Daniels](https://www.edgepedia.org/lee-daniels) (*Precious*), [Jason Reitman](https://www.edgepedia.org/jason-reitman) (*Up in the Air*), and Quentin Tarantino (*Inglourious Basterds*).[2](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/March-7/kathryn-bigelow-becomes-the-first-female-director-to-win-an-oscar) Receiving the directing prize, she said, "I hope I'm the first of many [women], and of course, I'd love to just think of myself as a filmmaker."[2](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/March-7/kathryn-bigelow-becomes-the-first-female-director-to-win-an-oscar)
She remained the only woman to win the category until [Chloé Zhao](https://www.edgepedia.org/chloe-zhao) won in April 2021 for *Nomadland*, holding the distinction for eleven years.[5](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17400309.2021.1952035) At the time of a 2017 industry report, only four women had ever been nominated for Best Director, and Bigelow alone had won.[6](https://time.com/5087673/film-directors-diversity-report/)
Three years later, *Zero Dark Thirty* earned a 2013 Oscar nomination for Best Motion Picture of the Year, shared with Mark Boal and [Megan Ellison](https://www.edgepedia.org/megan-ellison), but no directing nomination for Bigelow.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) That omission followed a season in which she was widely honored by critics' groups, raising press speculation about a possible second directing Oscar within four years, a double-win feat that, among recent filmmakers, [Clint Eastwood](https://www.edgepedia.org/clint-eastwood) had achieved with *Unforgiven* (1992) and *Million Dollar Baby* (2004).[7](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-xpm-2012-dec-19-la-et-mn-kathryn-bigelow-best-director-oliver-stone-story.html)
## BAFTA Awards and Golden Globes
The 2010 BAFTA ceremony was framed in the British press as a contest between Bigelow's *The Hurt Locker* and James Cameron's *Avatar*, each with eight nominations. *The Hurt Locker* won six BAFTAs, including Best Film, Best Director (the David Lean Award for Direction), Best Original Screenplay, editing, sound, and cinematography, while *Avatar* took two craft prizes.[8](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/kathryn-bigelow-wins-battle-of-exes-as-hurt-locker-storms-baftas-1906470.html) Bigelow received the same two BAFTA nominations for *Zero Dark Thirty* in 2013, without a win.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/)
The Golden Globes recognized her in the Best Director – Motion Picture category for both *The Hurt Locker* (2010 ceremony) and *Zero Dark Thirty* (2013 ceremony); she has two nominations and no win from that body.[3](https://goldenglobes.com/person/kathryn-bigelow/) A contemporary report on the 2010 season noted that while Cameron won Best Director and *Avatar* won Best Picture – Drama at the Globes, Bigelow's film took top honors from the Producers Guild and the Critics Choice Movie Awards.[9](https://www.thewrap.com/cameron-bigelow-face-dga-13692/)
## Critics' awards and genre prizes
Critics' organizations were steady supporters across her two Iraq-era films. The Boston Society of Film Critics named her Best Director for *The Hurt Locker* in 2009 and for *Zero Dark Thirty* in 2012, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association and the Toronto Film Critics Association gave her their 2009 directing prizes for *The Hurt Locker*, with Toronto also nominating her for *Zero Dark Thirty*.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) She won the 2010 Critics Choice Award for Best Director and was nominated in the same category in 2013.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/)
During the *Zero Dark Thirty* season, TheWrap's tally of 25 regional critics' groups found the film with 10 best-picture awards, against six for [Ben Affleck](https://www.edgepedia.org/ben-affleck)'s *Argo*, and Bigelow with 10 best-director awards against Affleck's seven (they tied once).[10](https://www.thewrap.com/zero-dark-thirty-daniel-day-lewis-lead-critics-awards-69786/)
Her genre work drew recognition from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, which awarded her the Saturn Award for Best Director for *Strange Days* in 1996 and nominated her for *Near Dark* in 1988 and *The Hurt Locker* in 2010.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) *Near Dark* also won the Silver Raven at the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film and was nominated for the Grand Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival, both in 1988.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/)
## Film festival recognition
*The Hurt Locker* premiered to a strong festival reception at Venice in 2008, winning four awards there: the SIGNIS Award, the Sergio Trasatti Award, the Human Rights Film Network Award, and the Young Cinema Award for Best Film in [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition).[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/)
Seventeen years later, Bigelow returned to the festival with *A House of Dynamite*, a nuclear-crisis thriller. It competed for the [Golden Lion](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-lion) at the 82nd [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival), where it drew an approximately 11-minute standing ovation, and received a Golden Frog nomination in Camerimage's Main Competition.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) • [11](https://apnews.com/article/16ab116fcadf94e7fc06704d4107f115) AP coverage noted that the film did not win at the festival but entered the broader awards conversation.[12](https://apnews.com/article/441dd2ad0b2346e5edebb3955e16c979)
## Television
Bigelow's Emmy recognition came as a producer rather than a director. The Television Academy lists one nomination and one win for her: the 2016 Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, for *Cartel Land*, credited to Bigelow as executive producer.[4](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/kathryn-bigelow)
## Context
The scale of Bigelow's accolades stands out partly because of the record behind her directing prize. Eighty-one years passed between the establishment of the Best Director category at the Academy Awards and her win in 2010.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/) Her own account of the moment sidestepped the milestone: she did not mention the historic nature of the award from the podium in 2010.[13](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-kathryn-bigelow) Other honors reported for her include a [Time 100](https://www.edgepedia.org/time-100) listing in 2010, a [Hollywood Walk of Fame](https://www.edgepedia.org/hollywood-walk-of-fame) star in 2014, and lifetime achievement recognitions from the Tribeca Film Festival in 2012 and the Venice Film Festival in 2013.[14](https://ifann.net/wiki/kathryn-bigelow/awards)
## References
1. [Kathryn Bigelow – Awards – IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/awards/)
2. [Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first female director to win an Oscar, March 7, 2010 – HISTORY](https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/March-7/kathryn-bigelow-becomes-the-first-female-director-to-win-an-oscar)
3. [Kathryn Bigelow – Golden Globes Awards Database](https://goldenglobes.com/person/kathryn-bigelow/)
4. [Kathryn Bigelow – Emmy Awards and Nominations, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/kathryn-bigelow)
5. [Innovating the frame: Kathryn Bigelow in close-up, New Review of Film and Television Studies (2021)](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17400309.2021.1952035)
6. [The Number of Women Who Direct Hollywood Movies Is Still Embarrassingly Small – TIME](https://time.com/5087673/film-directors-diversity-report/)
7. [Kathryn Bigelow and Oliver Stone: What do they have in common? – Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-xpm-2012-dec-19-la-et-mn-kathryn-bigelow-best-director-oliver-stone-story.html)
8. [Kathryn Bigelow wins battle of 'exes' as 'Hurt Locker' storms Baftas – The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/news/kathryn-bigelow-wins-battle-of-exes-as-hurt-locker-storms-baftas-1906470.html)
9. [Cameron, Bigelow Face Off at DGA – TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/cameron-bigelow-face-dga-13692/)
10. [Controversy Aside, 'Zero Dark Thirty' Continues to Capture Critics' Awards – TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/zero-dark-thirty-daniel-day-lewis-lead-critics-awards-69786/)
11. [The 2025 Venice Film Festival is over. Here's everything you need to know – AP News](https://apnews.com/article/16ab116fcadf94e7fc06704d4107f115)
12. ['Father Mother Sister Brother' wins top prize at the Venice Film Festival – AP News](https://apnews.com/article/441dd2ad0b2346e5edebb3955e16c979)
13. [Where to begin with Kathryn Bigelow – BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-kathryn-bigelow)
14. [Awards & Honours: Kathryn Bigelow – iFANN Wiki](https://ifann.net/wiki/kathryn-bigelow/awards)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Awards and screen reference › Academy Awards submissions, winner lists, and records*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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