Movies Features

Cameron, Bigelow go head-to-head for Best Director award

Mar 1, 2010, 10:35 GMT

62nd Annual Directors Guild Of America Awards at Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City with James Cameron, Suzy Amis. Fame Pictures

Los Angeles - The following are brief profiles of the five Oscar nominees for achievement in directing: '#'

James Cameron for Avatar:

The most commercially successful director of all time, Cameron's Titanic and Avatar are the only films to break the billion-dollar box office mark. Titanic also holds the joint record for most Oscar wins. Known as an exacting technician, a technological innovator and a hard-driving director who obsesses about the smallest details, Cameron's first movie was The Terminator in 1984. His other films include Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and True Lies (1994). Cameron, 55, was born in Ontario, Canada, and has been married five times, including to Kathryn Bigelow, who is also competing for the Best Director Oscar.

Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker:

A former professional painter, Bigelow, 58, made her first feature film - The Loveless - in 1982, but it was her 1987 movie Near Dark that thrust her to prominence and is still regarded as a cult vampire classic. Blue Steel, in 1990, established her as an expert at taut, violent thrillers, and she furthered her reputation with Point Break in 1991, in which Keanu Reeves played an FBI agent who posed as a surfer to catch a band of surfer bank robbers. Bigelow's other movies include Strange Days (1995) and Weight of Water (2000), but her high- budget K-19: The Widowmaker was a commercial flop despite starring Harrison Ford. She resurrected her career with The Hurt Locker, which has been acclaimed by critics and professional guilds for its searing rendition of soldiers lives in a messy and unwinnable conflict.

Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds:

One of the signature directors of his generation, Tarantino, 46, is an unabashed film geek who first came to prominence with Reservoir Dogs in 1992 and Pulp Fiction in 1994. Both movies displayed the non- linear storylines and aestheticization of violence that came to signify his later films like Jackie Brown, 1997, Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds. Pulp Fiction won him the Golden Palm at Cannes and was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay, which Tarantino won.

Lee Daniels for Precious:

Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire: Daniels, 50, started out in Hollywood as a talent agent and went on to produce the Oscar-winning Monster's Ball before switching to directing with Shadowboxer in 2006. His other producing credits include The Woodsman and Tennessee. Daniels lives in New York City where he raises his brother's two young children together with his partner Billy Hopkins, a casting director.

Jason Reitman for Up In The Air:

Reitman is the 32-year-old son of Canadian director Ivan Reitman, and made his directorial debut in the critically acclaimed 2006 film Thank You For Smoking. He enjoyed even greater success the next year with the coming-of-age comedy Juno, which was nominated for four Oscars. He has also directed ads for clients such as Walmart, BMW and Nintendo and directed two episodes of the hit TV series The Office. <#>