Finally, Columbia's Zero Dark Thirty will hit theaters Dec. 19. The project, which the studio regards as its strongest awards contender, marks a professional reunion of the personally involved writer-producer Mark Boal and director-producer Kathryn Bigelow, who collaborated three years ago on best picture Oscar winner The Hurt Locker, for which Boal also won best original screenplay and Bigelow also won best director (becoming the first woman to do so). That film was about the troops who risk their lives to try to defuse IEDs in Iraq; this film also recounts a story of anonymous courage and daring in a war zone by the many people who provided information and expertise that led to the Navy SEALs' fateful 2011 mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. (Everyone knows how the story ends, but most people don't know what led up to that ending.) The action-thriller -- the title of which is derived from a military term that is interchangable with "Oh Dark 30" and means 30 minutes after midnight but also refers to general darkness and secrecy that enveloped the decade-long hunt from start to finish -- stars Joel Edgerton, Jessica Chastain, Edgar Ramirez, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler and Jennifer Ehle. It is already the subject of considerable controversy, having received unusual levels of cooperation from the Obama administration (prompting the president's critics to speculate that it will be a puff piece, even though Boal says he isn't even depicted in the film). Columbia decided to withhold the film until after November's presidential election. 

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maintain their "Oscar Glow." This year's 82nd Academy Awards