As the Oscar season is off and running, The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow’s highly anticipated/secretive drama about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty, finally screened for critics this past weekend to a rather positive response.  Reviews praised Bigelow’s procedural approach to the decade-long manhunt and singled out Jessica Chastain’s standout performance as the film’s lead, a CIA analyst whose obsession with the case eventually led to bin Laden’s assassination.Given the film’s historical significance, ABC’s Nightline recently ran a report in which foreign correspondent (and master Presidential Debate moderator) Martha Raddatz sat down with Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal to discuss the making of the film, how the characters’ real-life counterparts felt about being portrayed, and the intense research they put into making the film as realistic as possible.  The video also includes new footage of the pic and plenty of video from the set.  Hit the jump to take a look.  Zero Dark Thirty opens in NY and LA on December 19th and expands nationwide on January 11th.Via The Playlist.Here’s the synopsis for Zero Dark Thirty:

For a decade, an elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark Thirty reunites the Oscar(R) winning team of director-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker) for the story of history’s greatest manhunt for the world’s most dangerous man.