Snowden documentary nominated for Oscar

Snowden documentary nominated for Oscar

"Citizenfour," a documentary film about Edward Snowden -- the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked documents revealing mass US surveillance activities -- earned an Oscar nomination Thursday. The film by US director Laura Poitras was one of five shortlisted for the documentary feature prize for the Academy Awards, which will be given out on February 22. Oscar-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh served as executive producer on the movie, which tells the story of how Snowden exposed secret NSA documents via newspapers including Britain's Guardian and The Washington Post. "Citizenfour" will compete against "Last Days in Vietnam," "The Salt of the Earth," "Finding Vivian Maier" and the Netflix-produced "Virunga." Poitras, who had already been shortlisted for a documentary Oscar in 2007, told Variety she was pleased with Thursday's nomination.