Bigelow has been nominated for Best Director at the Seattle International Film Festival, Golden Satellite and the Golden Globes.
Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood is a true cinema icon who has portrayed some of cinema's most iconic characters. But in recent years he has proved to be just as handy in the director's chair as he was in front of the camera.
Earlier this year he directed and starred in Gran Torino. He starred as Walt Kowalski, an unabashed bigot who never heard a racial insult he didn't love.
Bitter, haunted, and full of pride, Walt refuses to abandon the neighbourhood he's lived in for decades despite its changing demographics as he clings desperately to a mind set long since out of step with the times.
When his Hmong neighbour Thao tries to steal his prized muscle car as part of a gang initiation, Walt is forced to grapple with the world around him.
Gran Torino provides one of Eastwood’s best on screen performances as Walt struggles to come to terms with the changing world around him as well as showing his own prejudices and ignorance.
In all Gran Torino is truly a classy piece of filmmaking, which is what we have come to expect from Eastwood with the likes of Unforgiven, Changeling and Million Dollar Baby under his belt, this falls alongside them.
Hard to believe that he was overlooked in all Oscar categories earlier this year.
But he's back in the New Year with Invictus, a biopic of Nelson Mandela, which stars Morgan Freeman.
While it was a nearly favourite for award glory it has been somewhat overlooked in the early part of the awards season. Despite not picking up a Best Picture Golden Globe nod Eastwood did pick up a Best Director nomination.
And he already has another movie on the horizon, which reunites him with Matt Damon, thriller hereafter.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Kathryn Bigelow