For most filmmakers across the world, winning an Oscar is the highest achievement in film – worldwide acknowledgement from the world’s finest, recognising your talent. Now, imagine actually winning that award and being told by TSA that you’re not allowed to take the golden statue on the plane because it could possibly be used as a weapon (no, really!). And then, worst of all, after the flight, you realize that the airline lost the Oscar along the way. That’s exactly what happened to Pavel Talankin, co-director of Mr. Nobody Against Putin, who won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 2026 Academy Awards.
Somewhere between New York and Frankfurt, Talankin’s gold Oscar completely vanished. And, naturally, he’s really angry about it.
Speaking to Deadline, TSA agents actually flagged the small statuette as a potential weapon at JFK Airport – which was incredibly strange since Talankin had already flown with it plenty of times before without a single issue. “It’s completely baffling how they consider an Oscar a weapon,” Talankin told Deadline.
Talankin offered TSA a number of solutions that were all rejected, including asking a Lufthansa agent to personally carry it to the gate. Then he asked them if they could store it safely in the plane’s cockpit. The TSA official said no again, not budging at all. So, Talankin reluctantly had to check his Oscar in as… luggage.
Lufthansa gave him a cardboard box to put the Oscar in, and handed him a receipt. As an extra precaution, Talankin actually filmed the whole thing as the Oscar was wrapped and taken away. But when the plane landed in Frankfurt, it was gone. And, sadly, nobody even knows why.
The only positive right now is that Lufthansa says it’s investigating and treating the situation with urgency.
Now, an Instagram post about the experience is blowing up. The film’s co-director, David Borenstein, has also pointed out that he couldn’t find another case like this. Nobody has ever been asked to check in their Oscar on a flight before.
Pavel Talankin, a schoolteacher who documented Russia’s education system in his film Mr. Nobody Against Putin, is now without his award. But could this have been deliberate? Was this all planned by his enemies? Considering the film follows how classrooms changed after the invasion of Ukraine, and how it actually cost him his home country, it’s not too far-fetched, is it?
Somewhere out there is an 8.5-pound Oscar, probably sitting in a warehouse or maybe someone’s safe. Or maybe it’s just waiting for someone to realise it’s not actually a weapon.
