Kathryn Bigelow–the Best Director Oscar winner for The Hurt Locker, which also won Best Picture in 2010–has joined the roster of production house Smuggler for commercials and branded content worldwide.
The Hurt Locker earned a total of nine Academy Award nominations. Three years later, Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, which chronicled the hunt for Osama bin Laden, was also nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Bigelow’s previous features include The Loveless (1982), Blue Steel (1989), Point Break (1991), Strange Days (1995) and K-19: The Widowmaker (2002). Her work in advertising includes campaigns for Schweppes, Chanel, Ford, and Revlon. She was previously handled in the ad arena by production house RESET.
Earlier this year, Bigelow teamed with VR creator Imraan Ismail to create The Protectors: Walk in the Ranger’s Shoes. This short VR documentary follows a group of Garamba National Park rangers through the Democratic Republic of Congo, exploring the African elephants’ race toward extinction at the hands of ivory-seeking poachers. The project premiered on Earth Day, April 22, at the Tribeca Film Festival. The following month National Geographic released the film on the VR app Within, and on YouTube and Facebook360. The Protectors: Walk in the Ranger’s Shoes was a co-production of the VR company Here Be Dragons and the film production company Annapurna Pictures.
Bigelow’s latest feature film, Detroit, follows the true story of a police raid at the Algiers Motel on July 25, 1967, during Detroit’s infamous, racially charged 12th Street Riot. The film is set to be released in theaters on August 4.
