Kathryn Bigelow Wins the DGA Award

Published by Jeff Leins on: January 31st, 2010

Last night, the Directors Guild of America honored Kathryn Bigelow, the director of The Hurt Locker, with “Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film,” making her the first woman to win the award and the front-runner for the Oscar in March.  Academy nominations are announced Tuesday.

Bigelow bested competition from her ex-husband, James Cameron (Avatar), as well as Lee Daniels (Precious), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), and Jason Reitman (Up in the Air).

58 of the last 60 years the DGA Award has predicted the winner for “Best Director” at the Academy Awards, and only 6 times since the DGAs began in 1948 has their pick not won “Best Picture,” according to Roger Ebert.

“Just to be in the room with all of you is an unimaginable honor,” said Bigelow.  “We all felt a deep responsibility to tell this story as honestly as possible, given the courage of our troops overseas. This is the most incredible moment of my life.”

Louie Psihoyos won the award for documentary feature director on The Cove, also leading the pack in its category.