She's facing huge criticism for her 5-time Oscar nominated film, Zero Dark Thirty,  which depicts the American operation to find Osama Bin Laden. But she still found time to smile to the press outside the Late Show Studios. 

With five Academy Award nominations for the 85th Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Chastain), Best Original Screenplay, Sound Editing and Film Editing, Bigelow will be pretty happy, but her snub for Best Director has caused confusion. Los Angeles Times film critic Kenneth Turan blamed her being overlooked on what he called Washington bullies. "Chalk up this year's (Oscar) nominations as a victory for the bullying power of the United States Senate and an undeserved loss for Zero Dark Thirty in general and director Kathryn Bigelow in particular," Turan wrote on Thursday.

Here's the trailer for Zero Dark Thirty:

But Pete Hammond, awards columnist for website Deadline.com, said the snub for Bigelow could bring a sympathy vote for the movie itself at the Feb. 24 Oscars ceremony. "Despite the controversy, people may use the snub of Bigelow to make a bigger statement about artists having the right to make the movies they want to make without the interference of the government," Hammond told Reuters.

Had she been nominated for Best Director, though, she would have faced tremendously stiff competition from favorite Steven Spielberg, whose political biopic Lincoln is hotly tipped to clean up come February. 

Here's The Trailer for Lincoln: