The Hurt Locker
From The Broad Perspective by Megan Cruz
March 18, 2026 · 1h 27m · Season 2 · Episode 32
About this episode
This episode discusses Kathryn Bigelow's historic Oscar win for The Hurt Locker and the challenges faced by women in film.
At the 82nd Academy Awards in 2010, Kathryn Bigelow made history by becoming the first woman to win an oscar for best directing for her film, The Hurt Locker. he beat out her ex husband, James Cameron, for his film Avatar and Quentin Tarantino, for Inglorious Basterds, in the same category. In this episode we get into our complicated feelings over this win, we talk about the three previous films that nominated a woman for best director before this win, and the limited paths for success for women in film at the time.
People in this episode
Host: Megan Cruz
Topics covered
- Academy Awards
- women in film
- best director
- film history
- Oscar wins
Keywords
- Kathryn Bigelow
- The Hurt Locker
- Oscar
- best director
- women in film
- James Cameron
- Quentin Tarantino
- Academy Awards
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Inglorious Basterds
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