Oscar Statuette Vanishes After TSA Check at JFK

On a Wednesday flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Frankfurt, Pavel Talankin—co-director and subject of the Oscar-winning documentary *Mr. Nobody Against Putin*—was instructed by Transportation Security Administration agents to check his Academy Award statuette. The Oscar, sealed in a small box and placed at the aircraft’s rear, was missing when Talankin arrived in Frankfurt. He reports that the gold statue remains unlocated.

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*Mr. Nobody Against Putin* follows Talankin, a primary-school teacher in a small Ural-mountain town, as he documents Moscow’s nationalist propaganda aimed at children during the Ukraine war. Co-director David Borenstein filmed the footage covertly, smuggled it to a Copenhagen-based filmmaker, and the documentary won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2024. After the March 15 ceremony Talankin successfully carried the Oscar on board as a carry-on; the loss occurred on his subsequent return to the United States.

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• Academy Award: Best Documentary, 2024.

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• Domestic U.S. box-office (as of the latest Monday): $250,000.

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• Flight date: Wednesday, early May 2026 (exact date not specified).

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• Airline operating the flight: Lufthansa.

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Kino Lorber, the film’s U.S. distributor, confirmed that both Talankin and Borenstein have traveled exclusively with the Oscar as a carry-on since receiving the award. David Borenstein posted the loss on Instagram, tagging Lufthansa and the TSA and requesting assistance. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Lufthansa for comment; no response has been reported.

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Borenstein’s Instagram query raises concerns about possible bias in security treatment: “Would Pavel have been treated the same way if he were a famous actor? Or a fluent English speaker?” The question suggests perceived inconsistency in TSA procedures, though no official policy comparison is provided.

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• “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?” — David Borenstein, Co-director, *Mr. Nobody Against Putin*

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• “[It’s] about how you lose your country…What we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small little acts of complicity. When we act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities. When we don’t say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it.” — David Borenstein, Co-director, *Mr. Nobody Against Putin* (award-ceremony remarks)

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• “[It’s] about how you lose your country…What we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small little acts of complicity. When we act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities. When we don’t say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it.” — David Borenstein, Co-director, *Mr. Nobody Against Putin*

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• “have exclusively traveled with [their Oscar] as carry-on.” — Kino Lorber spokesperson

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The only confirmed response is Kino Lorber’s statement about prior carry-on travel. Lufthansa has not issued a comment, and TSA policy regarding the transport of awards is not detailed in the available reports. Consequently, the exact cause of the loss—misplacement, mishandling, or another factor—remains unverified.

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Talankin continues to pursue the missing statuette through airline and security channels. Meanwhile, *Mr. Nobody Against Putin* remains in limited theatrical release and is streaming via Kino Lorber’s collection, keeping public attention on both the film’s subject matter and the unresolved Oscar disappearance.

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