4. Kathryn Bigelow
The Movie: Adrenaline-Infused Action Movies Everyone Assumes Are Directed By A Man From her first film The Loveless (which dealt with a motorcycle gang), to her super-macho surfer heist flick Point Break, and then her one-two punch of military action suspense flicks The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow has made a career directing movies that more casual audiences would simply assume have been directed by men. Though this might sound sexist, it's a simple fact that Hollywood is dominated by male directors, and Bigelow was the first female director to ever win the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker. While most female directors tend towards dramas - after all, is the action movie genre not primarily geared towards men? - Bigelow usurps the stereotype, helming muscular, full-tilt action films that can easily compete with the work of any of her contemporaries. Though she tends to stick to this pretty keenly, I wouldn't have it any other way, because she's such a fascinating anomaly of the film industry - can you think of any other female action movie directors?