BERLIN – An Oscar statuette belonging to Russian director Pavel Talankin, who won best documentary this year for “Mr Nobody Against Putin”, has been found after going missing on a flight from New York to Germany, German airline Lufthansa said on Friday.
Talankin had been forced to check the award into hold luggage before boarding a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Frankfurt, according to a post by his co-director, David Borenstein, on Instagram. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents told Talankin that the 8.5 lb (3.8 kg) statuette posed a potential security threat, Borenstein said, adding that the award then went missing.
Lufthansa Confirms Recovery
“We can confirm that the Oscar statue has now been located and is safely in our care in Frankfurt. We are in direct contact with the guest to arrange its personal return as quickly as possible,” a spokesperson for Lufthansa said.
“We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and have apologised to the owner. The careful and secure handling of our guests’ belongings is of the utmost importance to us. An internal review of the circumstances is ongoing.”
TSA’s Security Concerns
The TSA did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment. “At the airport, a TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon,” Borenstein said on Instagram about Talankin.
“Pavel didn’t have a bag to check it in, so the TSA put the Oscar in a box and sent it to the bottom of the plane,” he said, posting a series of pictures, including of the box.
Speaking to the online magazine Deadline.com after arriving in Germany on Thursday, Talankin said it was “completely baffling how they consider an Oscar a weapon.” On previous flights on various airlines, he had flown with it “in the cabin, and there never was any kind of problem,” he told the outlet.
About the Documentary
Talankin and Borenstein’s documentary used two years of footage that Talankin had recorded at a school where he worked in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region to show how students were exposed to messaging in favour of President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The 35-year-old Talankin, who fled Russia in 2024, has defended the film as a record for posterity to show how “an entire generation became angry and aggressive.”
Analysis: A Symbolic Award
The Oscar for “Mr Nobody Against Putin” is a symbolically charged award. The documentary exposes the indoctrination of Russian youth in support of the Ukraine war. Talankin’s flight from Russia made him a critic of the regime.
The TSA’s decision to classify the Oscar as a potential weapon is — as Talankin noted — baffling. The statuette is solid metal but hardly a practical weapon. The fact that he had flown with it in the cabin on previous flights without issue suggests that the TSA’s decision was arbitrary.
The loss of the statuette — and its subsequent recovery — generated more publicity for the film than any marketing campaign could. The story of the “missing Oscar” has been reported worldwide.
Lufthansa’s apology and promise to return the statuette “as quickly as possible” will hopefully resolve the matter. Talankin can now display his award — and continue his work as a documentarian.
