Apr 30, 2026 1:59pm PT

‘Mr Nobody Against Putin’ Director’s Oscar Goes Missing After Being Confiscated by TSA

Jazz Tangcay

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Jazz Tangcay

Artisans Editor

@jazzt

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“Mr Nobody Against Putin” co-director Pavel Talankin‘s Oscar statue has gone missing after the TSA at New York’s JFK airport confiscated his award. Earlier this year, Talankin took home the Oscar for best documentary feature.

In a social media post, Talankin’s co-director David Borenstein made a plea to help find it. Borenstein wrote, “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. 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. Our EP Robin got on the phone and tried to reason with her. It didn’t work.”

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Since Talankin didn’t have a checked bag to stow the trophy in, TSA put the Oscar in a box and checked it in the hold. However, when Talankin landed in Frankfurt, Germany, his statue was nowhere to be found.

“I’ve looked and I can’t find a single other case of someone being forced to check an Oscar. Would Pavel have been treated the same way if he were a famous actor? Or a fluent English speaker?” wrote Borenstein.

'Mr Nobody Against Putin' Director's Oscar Goes Missing After Being Confiscated by TSA