Zero-Dark-Thirty-UK-PosterKathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty will be entering the Oscar race in a big way next month, and will be one of the last films to do so, with its US release set for 19th December, in the height of the awards season.

We saw an impressive first TV spot surface earlier in the week, and now the first clip has debuted over at Yahoo Movies, giving us a look at a rather heated debate between Jessica Chastain and Kyle Chandler.

“The upcoming true-life drama “Zero Dark Thirty” details the decade-long global hunt for Osama bin Laden, and in this exclusive in-theater banner, you get a satellite view of his secret compound in Pakistan. Two Black Hawk helicopters are seen approaching the fortified compound in the moments before Navy SEALs carried out the raid that lead to bin Laden’s death. The movie from the Oscar-winning writer and director of “The Hurt Locker,” will hit theaters on December 19.”

The film boasts one of the finest casts of the year, headed up by Mark Strong, Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chandler, Jason Clarke, James Gandolfini, Scott Adkins, Jennifer Ehle, Chris Pratt, Édgar Ramirez, Frank Grillo, Nash Edgerton, and Mark Duplass, with Ricky Sekhon taking the role of bin Laden himself.

Bigelow is once more directing from a script by Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker), with the two producing alongside the brilliant Megan Ellison (True Grit, The Master, Lawless).

Zero Dark Thirty will be given a limited release in the US on 19th December, qualifying it for the Oscars two months later, before opening wide on 11th January. Here in the UK, it will reach our shores on 25th January, and looks like it should be very much worth the wait. Here’s the great first clip to give you a taste of what to expect.