I hated this year’s Oscars and it’s obvious why. But one thing that really got to me was best director. I thought I knew what this award was for — guess I was wrong.

Before it was given, the buzz was, “Oh, I hope it’s Bigelow! First woman ever! Yipeee!”. I don’t have a problem with women winning this spot — I hope a woman wins it every year. But to me, best director should be given to the director who was “responsible in a major way, as the director, for making a film (leaving apart the script, acting, technicalities) into what it turned out to be on celluloid.”

Let’s take two other fellow nominees: Quentin Tarantino for Inglorious Basterds and James Cameron for Avatar. Without these people, can you imagine their respective films even existing? I doubt anyone in this world would have the vivid imagination and historical knowledge to write and direct something like Inglorious, and add to that the technical-knowhow, curiosity, and drive for something at the scale of Avatar. Inglorious Basterds was Quentin Tarantino. Avatar was James Cameron. These people are true visionaries, pioneers, creative geniuses, directors, and it shows in their products. Regardless of whether you can argue if their movies were critically or commercially appreciated — which they were — you can’t argue their influence on it.

Katherine Bigelow for The Hurt Locker? Because she’s a woman who created a decent movie, and for whom winning it would make her the first ever to do so? Give me a break.