The makers of Zero Dark Thirty, the Oscar-tipped film about the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, have once again poured scorn on suggestions that they endorsed torture by including scenes of waterboarding and sexual humiliation in the drama.

Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, who won Oscars three years ago for their highly acclaimed Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker, made the comments as they took to the stage to accept prizes from the New York Film Critics Circle last night. The release of their new film has drawn a stream of criticism from media commentators and high-profile politicians over its depiction of the CIA's alleged use of torture to find and kill the head of al-Qaida, but both film-makers made it clear they stood by their work.

"I thankfully want to say that I'm standing in a room of people who understand that depiction is not endorsement, and if it was, no artist could ever portray inhumane practices; no author could ever write about them; and no film-maker could ever delve into the knotty subjects of our time," said Bigelow as she accepted the best director award at the Crimson Club in Manhattan.

Boal, accepting the best film award, referenced the cases of two CIA agents who have either been jailed or are currently facing prison time following revelations of torture. "There's been a lot written about this movie; some of it has popped off the entertainment page to the news page," he said. "Let me just say this: there was a very interesting story on the front page of the New York Times today by Scott Shane, about a CIA agent who is now facing jail time for talking to a reporter about waterboarding," he said. "This gentleman is going to jail for that. And all I can say is that I read that story very closely. It sort of reminds me of what somebody else said when they were running for president, which is: 'If this shit was happening to somebody else, it would be very interesting. For us, it's quite serious.'

"But nevertheless, I stand here tonight being extremely proud of the film we made … In case anyone is asking, we stand by the film. I think, at the end of the day, we made a film that allows us to look back at the past in a way that gives us a more clear-sighted appraisal of the future."

Zero Dark Thirty, which stars Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton and Jason Clarke, has received considerable praise from critics and yesterday picked up more awards from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists and the Vancouver Film Critics, to follow influential prizes from New York, LA and Boston-based critics' organisations. However, its status as one of the frontrunners for next month's Oscars has been overshadowed by the criticism with which it has been targeted. Guardian commentator Naomi Wolf last week compared Bigelow with the infamous Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl for showing the successful use of torture to capture Bin Laden.

Both the former Republican US presidential candidate John McCain and the Democratic chair of the Senate intelligence committee, Dianne Feinstein, have suggested Bigelow and Boal endorsed the use of torture by their depiction of its use. The committee is currently probing whether the pair were granted "inappropriate access" to classified CIA material.

"I think [the committee] have a job to do, and it's very different from my job," Boal told the Hollywood Reporter after accepting his prize in New York. "It's a movie. I've been saying from the beginning it's a movie. That shouldn't be too confusing," he joked. "It's in cinemas, and if it's not totally obvious, a CIA agent wasn't really an Australian [Jason Clarke] … and Jessica Chastain isn't really a CIA agent; she's a very talented actress. But I think most American audiences understand that."

• This article was amended on Tuesday 8 January 2013. It originally quoted Kathryn Bigelow as saying "naughty subjects" rather than "knotty subjects"