Airline Lufthansa said it has found co-director Pavel Talankin’s missing Oscar and will “arrange its personal return as quickly as possible.”

Missing Oscar has been found after co-director of 2025 doc Mr. Nobody Against Putin says it was confiscated by TSA

Airline Lufthansa said it has found co-director Pavel Talankin's missing Oscar and will "arrange its personal return as quickly as possible."

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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on May 1, 2026 2:34 p.m. ET

Pavel Talankin and David Borenstein at the 98th Academy Awards on March 15 in Hollywood. Credit:

ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty

- The missing Oscar belonging to *Mr. Nobody Against Putin *co-director Pavel Talankin has been found by Lufthansa after it was confiscated by TSA and lost.

- Documentarian David Borenstein previously said a TSA agent at JFK 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.

- "Would Pavel have been treated the same way if he were a famous actor?" Borenstein questioned. "Or a fluent English speaker?"

The missing Oscar belonging to *Mr. Nobody Against Putin *co-director Pavel Talankin has been found after it was confiscated by TSA in New York and subsequently lost on its way to Frankfurt.

Lufthansa airline told * *on Friday, "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. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and have apologized to the owner."

Lufthansa added, “The careful and secure handling of our guests’ belongings is of the utmost importance to us. An internal review of the circumstances is ongoing."

A rep for Talankin told EW that TSA took the statuette at JFK Airport in New York on April 29, as it was not permitted as a carry-on item on the plane. The Oscar was processed as a separate baggage item and did not appear to make it onto the director's flight, the rep explained.

However, the rep added that Lufthansa has been in direct contact about the delayed item. The Oscar "is either already in transit or will be dispatched on an upcoming flight. We expect information shortly, and it should be delivered directly to Pavel."

Previously, the documentary's co-director**,** David Borenstein, took to his Instagram on Thursday to share an urgent plea: "An Oscar is missing," he wrote. "[Lufthansa], we need your help with this."

Borenstein and Talankin took home a pair of Oscars in March after their film *Mr. Nobody Against Putin *won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 98th Academy 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."

Pavel Talankin in 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin'.

Frantisek Svatos

EW* *has additionally reached out to representatives for TSA, the JFK Airport, and Borenstein for comment.

Talankin, a Russian schoolteacher, also stars in *Mr. 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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