Kathryn Bigelow's films

Director Kathryn Bigelow has been making movies for more than 30 years. But it was her film "The Hurt Locker," in 2008, that launched her into mainstream Hollywood. Bigelow won the Oscar for Best Director for the film about a highly trained bomb disposal team. She's seen here on the set of that movie.

Jonathan Olley/Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc

Bigelow's latest film, "Zero Dark Thirty" tells the story of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks, and his death at the hands of Navy SEAL Team 6 in May, 2011. The film is set to release on December 19.

Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty." Also starring Jennifer Ehle, Kyle Chandler and Chris Pratt.

Combat and conflict is not a foreign subject to Bigelow in her films. In "The Hurt Locker," Bigelow takes the audience into war-torn areas. Seen here, Jeremy Renner playing a serviceman attempting to escape an exploding bomb in "The Hurt Locker."

Jeremy Renner and Anthony Mackie in "The Hurt Locker."

Paramount Pictures and IMF Internationale Medien Und film GMBH & Co. 2 Produktions KG

Harrison Ford and Kathryn Bigelow, here, are seen on the set of "K-19: The Widowmaker," a 2002 film about a Russian submarine crew racing against time in effort to avert a nuclear disaster.

Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson in Bigelow's 2002 film "K-19: The Widowmaker."

In Bigelow's 1991 film, "Point Break," Keanu Reeves plays an FBI agent who goes undercover to catch a gang of bank robbers who may be surfers. Also seen here, Patrick Swayze.

Elizabeth Hurley and Sean Penn in "The Weight of Water." Bigelow's 2000 film tells the story of a newspaper photographer who researches the lurid and sensational axe murder of two women in 1873 as an editorial tie-in with a brutal modern double murder.

Angela Bassett and Ralph Fiennes in "Strange Days." This 1995 film by Bigelow follows a former cop-turned-street hustler who accidentally uncovers a police conspiracy in Los Angeles.

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