To the US government, Edward Snowden is still a fugitive. Last night, at Hollywood's glitziest celebration, he was heralded as a hero. And today, many in the US will get their first chance to decide for themselves.

On Sunday, journalist Laura Poitras won the Oscar for documentary filmmaking for her movie Citizenfour, which chronicled Snowden's journey and told the story of the journalists who handled the documents he gave them.

In her acceptance speech, Poitras thanked the Academy, the documentary community, and Snowden himself.

"The disclosures that Edward Snowden reveals don't only expose a threat to our privacy but to our democracy itself," she said. "When the most important decisions being made, affecting all of us, are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control. Thank you to Edward Snowden, for his courage, and for the many other whistleblowers."

Poitras won the Oscar together with her producers Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky. Also on the stage with them were journalists Glenn Greenwald and Lindsay Mills, Snowden's girlfriend.

Citizenfour had only a limited theatrical release within the US, and it's been notoriously hard to track down through legal streaming means (as of Sunday, it wasn't yet available on iTunes). However, the movie will get its broadcast premiere today, February 23, when it will be shown on HBO. And for UK readers, Channel 4 will show the film on Wednesday evening.

The most revealing part of the movie is footage taken in the Hong Kong hotel room where Snowden first showed his top-secret NSA documents to Poitras and Greenwald.

Snowden, who is living in asylum in Russia, offered a statement on the win that was distributed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is petitioning President Obama to grant him clemency. Snowden said:

When Laura Poitras asked me if she could film our encounters, I was extremely reluctant. I’m grateful that I allowed her to persuade me. The result is a brave and brilliant film that deserves the honor and recognition it has received. My hope is that this award will encourage more people to see the film and be inspired by its message that ordinary citizens, working together, can change the world.

Citizenfour, which is also the online handle Snowden used when he communicated with Poitras, was released in October. It garnered almost universally positive reviews. We've re-published our review of the movie on Ars.

Poitras was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2006 for her Iraq war film My Country, My Country.