Kathryn Bigelow recently made history as the first woman to win the Directors Guild of America award and became only the fourth woman ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Along with the DGA award, Bigelow has taken home accolades at the BFCA, PGA and NSFC awards in addition to a slew of regional critic’s awards (including the rare feat of garnering both the LA and NY prizes). With all of these precursor awards it would be shocking if Bigelow didn’t end up taking the little golden guy home at next month’s Oscar ceremony but with Avatar surpassing Titanic in domestic box office totals there is always the looming threat that the academy might want to reward James Cameron for another job well done.This scenario would be highly problematic as Cameron is Bigelow’s ex-husband and giving him the award over her would be a PR nightmare of epic proportions for the AMPAS. If you consider the not-so-healthy track record the academy has with rewarding women for their direction, editing or cinematography it would be incongruous for them to pass up their best chance to finally reward a woman for her directing talent. This is not to say that previous women were not just as valid as choices but that no woman has come as close as Bigelow is now.

Unlike the three previous women nominated for Best Director, Bigelow is not handicapped by the potential to be rewarded as a scriptwriter in lieu of a director prize (Mark Boal is the sole screenwriter for The Hurt Locker). Both Jane Campion and Sofia Coppola were awarded Oscars for their scripts and the Academy probably felt the achievement of being the first woman nominated for Best Director was reward enough for Lena Wurtmueller. Other female writer/directors have been nominated for their scripts alone without any notice of their direction (Sarah Polley for Away From Her is a recent example). Without the threat of a “consolation prize” screenwriting Oscar for Bigelow, her chances of taking home the Oscar for direction are significantly higher.

Simply achieving a nomination has proven to be difficult for women directors in the past. Despite Best Picture nominations (and in some cases DGA nominations) for Awakenings, The Prince of Tides, Children of a Lesser God and Little Miss Sunshine none of the women that directed these films managed to secure Best Director nominations. Some people have forgotten that Barbara Streisand can be a fantastic director and even won a Golden Globe for her work on the film Yentl but in 1992 was passed over for another historic nomination in John Singleton (apparently, the academy couldn’t make room for two non-white men in the race). Penny Marshall became the first woman to direct a film to a 100+ million box office (Big) but rewarding Francis Ford Coppola with a nomination for the mediocrely received third installment in the Godfather series seems egregious in hindsight considering her excellent work on Awakenings. The Coen Brothers proved that a pair of directors can share a nomination but that didn’t help Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton in 2006 for their film Little Miss Sunshine. Despite serious momentum in each case, women just couldn’t seem to catch a break with the Academy.

Bigelow’s nomination and perpetual win give hope that the Academy will start recognizing more women for their direction. There is always the possibility, however, that once they’ve rewarded a woman they may find it unnecessary to do so again for a long time. Not all fault should be bestowed upon the Oscars though as they can’t nominate women if Hollywood isn’t hiring them to direct. 2009 has been a high profile year for women filmmakers as Bigelow, Lone Sherfig, Jane Campion, Mira Nair, and Betty Thomas (whose sequel to Alvin and the Chipmunks is now the highest grossing film ever directed by a woman) have all enjoyed varying success for their work. With Bigelow poised to take the Oscar and Thomas directing a massive hit, I hope Hollywood will start affording more opportunity to women filmmakers.

Do you think Bigelow will win the Oscar? What are your favorite directorial efforts by a woman?

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