5. Kathryn Bigelow
Best Film: The Hurt Locker (2008) This ranking may surprise a few readers who might think, "How can the only woman to win an Oscar for Best Director be ranked this low?" But her ranking is more of a statement about the impressive talents of those ahead of her rather than her shortcomings. Yes, she did direct Point Break in 1991 that straddled the line between awesome and awful so frequently that its still hard to decide which side it came down on, but her 1995 film Strange Days starring Ralph Fiennes is actually an overlooked gem. And obviously The Hurt Locker impressed everyone enough to give her the Oscar over her ex-husband James Cameron. There has been some backlash towards the film recently (mostly from Tarantino fanboys miffed that he didn't take the honor for Inglourious Basterds), but it holds up as a tense thriller set in the Iraq war. And last year's Zero Dark Thirty may have disappointed people who wanted an all-out action movie about killing Bin Laden, but given the incredibly brief time frame of making the film after the terrorist's death it is impressive how nuanced the film was. She may need to direct her attention away from headline-grabbing stories for her next films so she doesn't become "that director" but whatever she makes next will undoubtedly be a thrilling experience.