Kathryn Bigelow To Receive 2018 MPSE Filmmaker Award

The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) will honor Kathryn Bigelow with its annual Filmmaker Award during the org’s Golden Reel Award ceremony February 18^th in Los Angeles. The director of such films as Detroit, Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker, is being recognized for her outstanding contributions to the art of cinema..

A trailblazing filmmaker whose work is noteworthy for its emotional depth, arresting visuals and stunning action, Bigelow is the only woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director (for The Hurt Locker).   She will join the ranks of past MPSE Filmmaker Award recipients include Guillermo del Toro, Sam Raimi, Darren Aronofsky, George Lucas, Ang Lee, Michael Bay, Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Brian Grazer and Gale Anne Hurd.

Originally intent on a fine arts career, Bigelow studied painting at the San Francisco Art Institute. She later became interested in filmmaking and received a scholarship to Columba University's graduate film school. Her debut as a feature director came in 1982 with the drama The Loveless.  Other features include Near Dark (1987), Blue Steel (1989), Point Break (1991), Strange Days (1995), The Weight of Water (2000) and K-9: The Widowmaker.  During that period Bigelow was also involved with several television projects.

The Iraq War drama The Hurt Locker (2008) won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. Zero Dark Thirty, which followed in 2012, also achieved widespread critical and commercial success, and earned Best Director nominations from the Golden Globes and BAFTA and an Oscar for Best Sound Editing.  Her latest project, Detroit, is a portrait of the race riots that gripped the city in 1967.

For more information about the MPSE, please visit: mpse.org