Oscar Winners Leave Out 'Zero Dark Thirty' Amid Media Frenzy, Video
Zero Dark Thirty received a lot of media attention leading up to the Academy Awards but won only one award on Sunday, leaving some to wonder why.
The film received five nominations but only won an Oscar for Sound Editing, one which they shared with Skyfall. For the sixth time in Academy Awards history there was a tie in the sound editing category, with the Oscar going to both films.
Zero Dark Thirty is about the decade-long U.S. hunt for Osama bin Laden and the team that lead the raid when he was captured. Many also were shocked at the fact that the film's director, Kathryn Bigelow, was not nominted in the category of Best Director. Her ex-husband, Steven Spielberg, was nominated for his work on the film Lincoln. The last time the exes were nominated in the same category Bigelow took home the Best Director Oscar for her film The Hurt Locker beating Spielberg's Avatar.
In the end Zero Dark Thirty received more political attention that it did industry recognition, amid controversy over its depiction of tortune, alleged intelligence leaks to the movie's creators and more. The film sparked controversy that the Obama administration leaked classified intelligence to its production team and that the movie implied torture helped get answers in the bin Laden case, according to Reuters.
Democrats U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin, and Republican John McCain sent a letter to Sony Pictures in mid-December saying the film is "grossly inaccurate and misleading" for suggesting that torture helped the U.S. track bin Laden to a Pakistani compound where he was killed in 2011 by U.S. troops.
Three weeks later, when Oscar nominations were announced, Bigelow was not included in the lineup for Best Director, chosen by around 5,800 movie industry professionals in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The film was also rumored to have helped President Barack Obama win reelection and reveal national security secrets. On Oscar morning, relatives of a flight attendant who died in the Sept. 11, 2011 terror attacks criticized Zero Dark for using a recording of her last call before her plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
The film was also unofficially banned in Pakistan due to its "controversial" depiction of the country. The film is not shown in theaters because it was accused of being factually incorrect and portraying the country and its locals in a negative light.
Watch the offical trailer for Zero Dark Thirty below.
