One morning last month, staffers at First Look Media’s New York City office discovered a hole in one of the windows overlooking Manhattan’s Flatiron District. Nearby, they found a bullet. Though First Look officials initially feared their company had been deliberately targeted by small arms fire, the New York City police department later blamed an unrelated incident at a nearby intersection in which someone discharged a gun. For some reason, the company has kept a tight lid on the fact that the incident ever happened.

After a year of missteps and black eyes, the very expensive experiment that is First Look Media has a positive moment in the spotlight: Citizenfour, a film based largely on the crew's Edward Snowden reporting, just nabbed an Oscar.