Who was the first American woman to be nominated for best director Academy Award?

Kathryn Bigelow, for her film The Hurt Locker (2009), is the only woman to have won an Oscar for Best Director. Only four have been nominated including Bigelow, the others are: Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, for [the Italian] Seven Beauties (1976), The Piano (1993), Lost in Translation (2003), respectively. The second and third won an Oscar for the film's screenplay.

The Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film goes to the director. And two women have won: Marleen Gorris for Antonia's Line(The Netherlands, 1995) and Caroline Link for Nowhere in Africa (Germany, 2002).