Kathryn Bigelow hails 'moment of a lifetime' after landmark Oscar
Kathryn Bigelow becomes first woman to win best director at Oscars for The Hurt Locker
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By Jack Clark. |  |
Monday, 08, Mar 2010 05:12
By Matthew Champion.
Kathryn Bigelow last night became the first woman to win a best director award at the Oscars, one of six prizes The Hurt Locker won on a historic night in Los Angeles.
The 58-year-old also became the first woman to see her movie win the best picture award, with the Iraq war drama also winning best original screenplay.
Bigelow's low-budget film, about American bomb disposal squads after the 2003 invasion, was the night's big winner, beating off competition from the highest-grossing film of all time Avatar, directed by her ex-husband James Cameron.
Cameron was one of the first people to congratulate his former partner as she made her way to the podium at the Kodak Theatre on Sunday.
"There is no other way to describe it - it's the moment of a lifetime," Point Break director Bigelow said in her acceptance speech.
"It's so extraordinary to be in the company of my fellow nominees, such powerful filmmakers, who have inspired me and I have admired, some of them for decades."
Bigelow dedicated her win to the "the people who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan... may they come home safe".
She is only the fourth woman to even be nominated for best director in the Academy's 82-year history.
Sofia Coppola was nominated for Lost in Translation in 2003, Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993 and Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties in 1975.