Documentarian David Borenstein says his Mr. Nobody Against Putin co-director, Pavel Talankin, had his Oscar confiscated by TSA at New York's JFK airport, and it's now lost.
Key Points
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According to Borenstein, a TSA agent refused to allow Talankin to carry the Oscar onto his plane, requesting he place it in a box that was sent under the plane, but never arrived at its destination.
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"Would Pavel have been treated the same way if he were a famous actor?" Borenstein questioned. "Or a fluent English speaker?"
It sounds like a case for Columbo.
Documentarian David Borenstein took to hisInstagramon Thursday to share an urgent plea: "An Oscar is missing," he wrote. "[Lufthansa], we need your help with this."
Borenstein and his co-director, Pavel Talankin, took home a pair of Oscars mere weeks ago, after their filmMr. Nobody Against Putinwon Best Documentary Feature Film at the 98thAcademy Awards. But Talankin has barely had the chance to enjoy this massive honor, Borenstein explained, after a snafu at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport resulted in his little gold man being confiscated, and now going missing.
"Yesterday he arrived at JFK ready to fly home to Europe, carrying the Oscar as a carry-on. I snapped the first picture here of him on his way out," Borenstein wrote, over a shot of a smiling Talankin weighted down with luggage. If you look closely, his gleaming Oscar rests in a netted bag slung over his right shoulder.
"At the airport, a TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon. She wouldn't let him carry it on board," Borenstein claimed, explaining that their attempts to reason with the Transportation Security Administration agent were unsuccessful, so they "put the Oscar in a box and sent it to the bottom of the plane."
Borenstein included pictures of the box in question, which "never arrived in Frankfurt," and the lost baggage slip Talankin was given there.
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Borenstein then speculated: "Would Pavel have been treated the same way if he were a famous actor? Or a fluent English speaker?"
He implored TSA and the airline Lufthansa to aid them in the search, and threw a Hail Mary by ending his post with the request, "If anyone else has ever had to check an Oscar statuette, I'd love to know."
Entertainment Weeklyhas reached out to representatives for TSA, the JFK Airport, Lufthansa, Talankin, and Borenstein for comment.
Talankin, a Russian schoolteacher, also stars inMr. Nobody Against Putin. The film begins as a simple chronicle of his class at a primary school in Karabash, a working class town in Western Russia, near the Kazakhstan border. But as the film unfolds, he also captures the transformation of the school from an impartial bastion of education to a propaganda-fueled disinformation site amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
The directing duo also won the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, and the Special Jury Award at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where the film premiered.
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