10 Best Films by Director Kathryn Bigelow

"War is a drug." Bigelow made history as the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director and Best Picture with this breathtaking nail-biter. Jeremy Renner delivers a devastating performance as the reckless leader of a bomb disposal unit in Baghdad who has become addicted to the danger of defusing explosives.

The ultimate action classic of the early nineties. Keanu Reeves infiltrates a gang of bank robbers wearing masks of ex-presidents as FBI agent Johnny Utah, led by philosophical surf guru Bodhi (Patrick Swayze). Bigelow filmed the breathtaking surfing scenes and skydiving sequences with unmatched flair.

The meticulous and gripping account of the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, seen through the eyes of obsessed CIA analyst Maya (Jessica Chastain). The climactic nighttime helicopter raid by Navy SEALs on the compound in Abbottabad is a masterclass in documentary-style tension.

A visionary sci-fi noir set in a dystopian Los Angeles on the eve of the new millennium, where memories and feelings are illegally recorded and traded on minidiscs. Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, and Juliette Lewis shine in this virtuosically filmed paranoid thriller.

One of the very best vampire films ever made. Bigelow blends gothic bloodlust with the dusty world of the western. A young farm boy is bitten and joins a roaming family of nomadic vampires (featuring Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen) in the American Southwest.

A terrifyingly realistic and nerve-wracking drama about the fatal events at the Algiers Motel during the intense race riots in Detroit in 1967. Bigelow captures the brutal police violence and racial injustice with the intensity of a horror film.

Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson play the captains of the very first nuclear-powered Soviet submarine armed with ballistic missiles. When the nuclear reactor threatens to melt down at sea, the crew must carry out suicide missions to prevent a Third World War. Tense and claustrophobic.

Jamie Lee Curtis delivers a strong performance as a rookie New York police officer who shoots an armed robber on her first day of patrol, after which a psychopathic stockbroker (Ron Silver) steals her service weapon and develops a deadly obsession with her.

Bigelow interweaves a contemporary marital crisis during a boat trip (starring Sean Penn and Elizabeth Hurley) with the historical account of a gruesome 19th-century axe murder of two immigrant women on Smuttynose Island (starring Sarah Polley). Atmospheric and psychologically charged.

Bigelow's feature debut, which also marked Willem Dafoe's debut in his very first leading role as the charismatic leader of a motorcycle gang stranded in a sleepy southern town. A stylish tribute to the 1950s and The Wild One.