Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty was a film immediately and unanimously acclaimed by critics. It has since become embroiled in a controversy that has threatened its once untarnished status, though. The movie depicts the U.S. government in its historic search for Osama bin Laden. What lurks beneath the surface of that “glorious” hunt, though, is the morality of the tactics used to get to him — torture. Bigelow’s protagonist Maya, played by Jessica Chastain, is part of the methods of torture (waterboarding), which the characters use to in their hunt for the terrorist top dog. As the film’s lead actress, Chastain is considered the frontrunner for the Best Actress Oscar. Yet while it may have one Oscar (close to) sown up, this controversy could cost it the most prestigious Oscar of all: Best Picture.

Upon its release, Zero Dark Thirty garnered uninhibited acclaim, but the discourse around it has become less optimistic and more antagonistic. One side of criticism claims that it’s just another Obama/liberal propaganda piece, while the other side says that it’s pro-torture — and they’re not necessarily mutually exclusive. Its depictions of torture have crossed aisles, attracting the attention (and anger) of government bigwigs like Dianne Feinstein and John McCain. In fact, the criticism has become so intense that Thirty’s screenwriter Mark Boal has gone to the presses to drop his own two cents into the torture debate.

The last time a Best Picture nominee garnered this much criticism, as far as I can remember, was February 2010, when Bigelow’s first (and so far only) Oscar-winning work, The Hurt Locker, went up against James Cameron’s Avatar. Cameron’s sci-fi action flick received immediate critical acclaim — even praise that it was an instant classic because of its innovative use of certain cinematic technologies. It went on to nab Best Picture honors from numerous critics, riding a wave that culminated in a Golden Globe for Best Drama.

Though it received much acclaim and various accolades, the highest grossing film of all time failed to win the biggest prize of them all: the Best Picture Oscar. Bigelow’s much less popular (and much less criticized) film took that honor (to be fair and thorough, though, The Hurt Locker did receive its share of criticism). Like Thirty, Cameron’s film started off entirely golden — until it was famously charged with plagiarism. Critics came to decry the film as nothing more than a ripoff of the imperialist, romanticized Pocahontas story (i.e. white colonizer civilizes the supposedly savage, indigenous “Other”) and the canonical, clichéd Romeo and Juliet (star-crossed) love story. Charges of racism and imperialism racked the film’s reputation. Avatar was no longer simply a copy of well-known, better originals; it was an offensive copy. Certainly, Avatar didn’t lose the Best Picture Oscar to The Hurt Locker solely because of said criticism; but it also doesn’t seem entirely coincidental that a more culturally influential, more controversial film lost to a less well-known, more creatively original, and perhaps more deserving film like The Hurt Locker.

Either way, Ben Affleck and his recent, surprise Best Director wins at the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards and the Golden Globes have put Argo at the front of the race for the Best Picture Oscar. He and his film are the dark horses that have made a reputation of defying expectations and are now, believe or not, top dogs for the top trophy. Had there been an attention-grabbing rivalry, like that between Avatar and The Hurt Locker, going on this awards season between Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, I would say that it has no shot at all, that it’s trapped in a one-sided battle inevitably tipping against its odds. But, considering the swath of Best Pic winners at the various awards shows this season, I can’t count it out. Of course, I’d give the statuette to Lincoln first, but Argo comes before all others at this point. Needless to say, when a film grabs the attention of the U.S. Congress, that attention is definitely noted worldwide, but it can often spell doom. Thirty’s fate is undecided, but it seems to be sliding ever closer to a loss. Perhaps most importantly though, Bigelow’s opus appears to have notched its place in the (pop) cultural pantheon beside Avatar. It should surely have a Best Actress award coming Chastain’s way too. You win some, you lose some — and it seems even with such a big loss, it could still be a bigger winner.