Geoffrey Berkshire in his review for '' Variety '' described it as " A spellbinding portrait of the Internet whiz kid 's life and political convictions , which were cut short by his suicide in early 2013 . " John DeFore of '' The Hollywood Reporter '' gave the film a positive review and said that it was an " Excellent newbie-friendly account of a story that rocked the Web 's cognoscenti . " Katherine Kilkenny from '' Indiewire '' said that " '' The Internet 's Own Boy '' aspires to provoke Capitol Hill by educating its viewers to inspire questions . Questions for those revered leaders in Silicon Valley – and for a government whose restrictions of the internet have been applied with a sledgehammer , as one source of the film says , instead of a scalpel . " In her review for '' The Daily Telegraph '' , Amber Wilkinson gave the film three stars out of five and said that " Knappenberger 's film is a heavy watch , mostly using talking heads and footage of Swartz before his death to tell a story which comes to question the state of civil liberties in the US . " In December 2014 the film was listed among 15 films on a " short list " to advance to a round of voting for Documentary Feature in the 87th Academy Awards , however it did not advance to a nomination . The film later won the award for Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America
87th Academy Awards
87th Academy Awards
The Internet's Own Boy