Who became the first woman ever to win a Best Director Oscar?

Kathryn Ann Bigelow (born November 27, 1951) is an American director, producer and writer.

Bigelow directed The Hurt Locker, which was first shown at the Venice Film Festival in September 2008, was the Closing Night selection for Maryland Film Festival in May 2009, and theatrically released in the US in June 2009.

With The Hurt Locker, Bigelow became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director, the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing, the BAFTA Award for Best Direction and the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director. She also became the first woman to win the Saturn Award for Best Director in 1995 for Strange Days.

In April 2010, Bigelow was named in the Time 100 list of most influential people of the year.