What should have been a smooth journey turned stressful for recent Oscar winner Pavel Talankin, after his Academy Award went missing during a trans-Atlantic flight—only to be found two days later by the airline. Talankin, who co-directed the best documentary winner Mr. Nobody Against Putin, hadn’t anticipated any trouble carrying his statuette while flying from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Frankfurt, Germany, on Wednesday. However, things took an unexpected turn at security when a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agent refused to let him take the Oscar on board.
“At the airport, a TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon,” Talankin’s co-director, David Borenstein, shared in an Instagram post on Thursday night.
With no luggage to check in, Talankin had little choice. “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,” Borenstein added. “It never arrived in Frankfurt.” The situation quickly drew international attention after Borenstein’s post went viral. By Friday, airline Lufthansa confirmed that the missing Oscar had been located.
“We can confirm that the Oscar statue has now been located and is safely in our care in Frankfurt,” the airline said in a statement. “We are in direct contact with the guest to arrange its personal return as quickly as possible. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and have apologized to the owner.”
The airline also noted that an “internal review of the circumstances is ongoing.”
Talankin and Borenstein’s collaboration
Back in March, Mr. Nobody Against Putin won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, with Talankin and Borenstein delivering one of the ceremony’s most powerful acceptance speeches. Talankin—the “Mr. Nobody” at the heart of the film—was a teacher and activities director at a small-town school in Russia. He secretly recorded footage of students participating in lessons, chants, and songs supporting Putin’s war in Ukraine. Eventually, he smuggled hard drives out of the country to collaborate with Borenstein, who is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Speaking in Russian through a translator during the ceremony, Talankin said: “In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now.” The TSA did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
Media professional and journalist based in British Columbia, Canada. Founder of Studiox Film & TV Corporation, focusing on multicultural news, interviews, and community storytelling across Canada.
