If you had asked me two weeks ago to tell you the films I thought would be competing for Best Documentary at the 2015 Oscars, the first two titles I would have said Rich Hill and The Overnighters. Watching reactions from New York Film Festival on Twitter this weekend however, I realized a film that has yet to be released may steal the spotlight in just a few short weeks.

Citizenfour is a film that can never be made again. It’s a real life thriller, unfolding by the minute, giving audiences unprecedented access to filmmaker Laura Poitras and journalist Glenn Greenwald’s encounters with Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, as he hands over classified documents providing evidence of mass indiscriminate and illegal invasions of privacy by the National Security Agency (NSA). As far as I know, there has never been a documentary like this ever before, and unless another major security leak happens with cameras present 24/7 it will never be duplicated. The first trailer introduces a story you think you know, then teases you with a sense of tension you might not expect. Check it out:

The official synopsis for Citizenfour reads:

In January 2013, Poitras (recipient of the 2012 MacArthur Genius Fellowship and co-recipient of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service) was several years into making a film about surveillance in the post-9/11 era when she started receiving encrypted e-mails from someone identifying himself as “citizen four,” who was ready to blow the whistle on the massive covert surveillance programs run by the NSA and other intelligence agencies. In June 2013, she and Greenwald flew to Hong Kong for the first of many meetings with the man who turned out to be Snowden. She brought her camera with her. The film that resulted from this series of tense encounters is absolutely sui generis in the history of cinema: a 100% real-life thriller unfolding minute by minute before our eyes.

Citizenfour arrives in theaters October 24.

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James Shotwell

James Shotwell is the founder of Under The Gun Review. He loves writing about music and movies almost as much as he loves his two fat cats. He's also the co-founder of Antique Records and the Marketing Coordinator for Haulix. You should probably follow him on Twitter.

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