By Lubna Abdel-Aziz A duel of sorts is expected come Oscar night (Mar.7). The foregone conclusion is that director James Cameron, with his outstanding, astonishing AVATAR, and its nine nominations, will sweep filmdom's most coveted prize.. That is no longer a sure thing, as many Academy members are poised to vote for a little- known, independent, low-budget production, titled The Hurt Locker. Even the title bears little sense, , yet its flexing its muscle with as many nominations, as the bluer than blue, technically groundbreaking Avatar. The Hurt Locker was first released in Italy, 'in October of 2008, after receiving the Best Picture Award at the Venice Film Festival. It then traveled to Toronto, Canada to be featured at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was finally picked .up for distribution in the US. It saw the light in July of 2009. Since then it has scored with critics, and is virtually on everyone's best film list.of 2009. It swept the BAFTA (British Film Awards) , last month, winning Best Film, Best Director, Best original Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography and Sound What more can you ask of a small indie film that so far, has been virtually unheard of? Oscar's nod, of course. The film world was breathless when the Academy awarded The Hurt Locker, 9 nominations, going head to head with Avatar. More interesting still is that small and seemingly insignificant war-thriller is directed by one of Hollywood's mere handful of female directors by the name of Kathryn Bigelow. Bigelow has already received Best Director Award from her woman in film history has ever taken home the golden boy called Oscar. Bigelow may indeed peers of the Film Director' Guild in January. To top it all, Bigelow will be competing for Best Director Honours at the Oscars with her former husband, none other than James Cameron, director of such prestigious films as Terminator, Aliens, Titanic and Avatar. A veritable melo-dramatic moment awaits us on Oscar night, especially that no woman ever won. History may be made at the 82nd Academy Award ceremony. Why is the Hurt Locker causing such a sensation? The story was written by free-lance journalist Mark Boal, who was embedded with a bomb squad during the Iraq war. A splendid cast is led by Jeremy Renner who gives a performance worthy of an Oscar nomination, which he did receive. He is the favoured by many as the top runnerfor Best Actor honours, though the sentimental favourite remains the ever dependable Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart. The film was shot in Jordan, within miles of the Iraqi border. Who or what is The Hurt Locker? The title is an army expression alluding to soldiers who get hurt on the battle field in an explosion ,and are sent to be treated, hence to the Hurt Locker. Bigelow is the real star behind the surprising success story of this action-packed war movie, perhaps heralding a new era for female directors. Bigelow, however, is no newP comer to the industry. She has been a serious director since her 1981 The Loveless, an eccentric feature, so distinct in style, it earned Bigelow critical acclaim. Kathryn Bigelow entered the film world, by way of the art world.. She developed an interest in art as a child. Born in California in1951, she attended the San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied painting. A scholarship sent her to Whitney Museum in New York. She then moved to Columbia University where she chose to study Film Theory and Criticism, which earned her a Master's Degree in Fine Arts, in 1979. She made her first venture into film-making, with the Set Up, (1978), a 20 minute short, depicting two men beating each other, while a voice-over read an essay on violence. This effort lay a thematic groundwork for her later work. Now she is hailed as one of the master stylists of contemporary Hollywood film-making. She is known to have a flair for traditionally masculine movies, a fact she does not deny.. In 1987 she made Near Dark, a stylish atmospheric cross, between a horror movie and a Western. Her effort resulted in her becoming a cult figure among Hollywoodians.. She met and married James Cameron, and together they collaborated on her first major studio film, Blue Steel, (1990). The marriage ended shortly thereafter, but Kathryn continued to direct feature films and television. Her best known effort "K-19" -- The Widow- Maker", (2002), an adaptation of a historical event, where a faulty Russian nuclear submarine, test-fired a missile in 1961, resulting in a leak, that almost triggered World War 111. The $100 million feature, bombed miserably at the box-office, making it the biggest independent flop to date. Kathryn moved to the small screen for a while, but has now returned to the big screen, with a vengeance. Problems still face women directors, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Part cultural and part sexism, it is the same in film as it is in any male-dominated work-place. It is still a brutal jungle out there, for women. Only nine per cent of Hollywood directors are women. Of the more than 400 director nominations in the Academy Awards' history, Bigelow is only the 4th; female nominee; the other three were Lina Wertmuller, in 1976, Jane Campion in 1993 and Sofia Coppola in 2003. No woman has ever won. Judging from the critics praise for the Hurt Locker, this may well be the year. The New York Times' critic called it, " the year's most critically acclaimed American film, while" The Chicago Sun thought it,"the best film of the decade. TIME Magazine hails it as,"the near-perfect movie about men in war", and the Los Angeles Times believes, Bigelow brings to the film, ''an awful ferocity". All this builds up for the drama awaiting us on Oscar night. It will be the Battle of the Titans, the Sexes, or the exes, a ferocious battle , nonetheless. Bigelow is already ahead, having won Best Director as well as Best Picture, from the Critics' Association of Los AngelesNew York, Chicago and Las Vegas. The Hurt Locker became only the 4th film to win all 3 major US Critics' group Prizes, joining Goodfellas, Schindler's List and L.A. Confidential. Bigelow's stunningly brilliant dissection of modern warfare ,resulted in this adrenaline-soaked tour de force of surprise and suspense. It is gratifying to see that it has not gone unnoticed but the Lion's share still awaits, and may the best man, or best woman win. Wherever women are honoured, there the gods are pleased Code of Manu, c. 100 B.C,
