A documentary filmmaker’s Academy Award has disappeared during air travel after security officials forced him to place the trophy in checked baggage, calling it a potential security threat.
Pavel Talankin, the Russian director whose film “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” earned this year’s Oscar for best documentary, lost his statuette while traveling from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Frankfurt on a Lufthansa flight.
Transportation Security Administration officers at JFK prevented Talankin from carrying the 8.5-pound award onto the aircraft, according to his co-director David Borenstein, who shared details of the incident on social media Thursday.
“At the airport, a TSA agent stopped him and said the Oscar could be used as a weapon,” Borenstein wrote on Instagram.
Since Talankin lacked checked luggage, security personnel placed the trophy in a container and sent it to the aircraft’s cargo hold, Borenstein explained. He posted photographs showing the box containing the award.
“It never arrived in Frankfurt,” Borenstein stated.
Lufthansa has acknowledged the serious nature of the situation and launched an investigation.
“We deeply regret this situation,” a company representative told Reuters when asked for comment.
“Our team is handling this matter with the utmost care and urgency and we are conducting a comprehensive internal search to ensure that the Oscar is found and returned as soon as possible.”
Speaking with Deadline.com after reaching Germany Thursday, Talankin expressed bewilderment over the security classification.
The filmmaker said it was “completely baffling how they consider an Oscar a weapon.”
Talankin noted that he had previously traveled with the statuette “in the cabin, and there never was any kind of problem” on other airlines.
The award-winning documentary features two years of recordings Talankin made while working at a school in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region, documenting how students received pro-war propaganda.
The 35-year-old filmmaker, who left Russia in 2024, has described the film as historical documentation showing how “an entire generation became angry and aggressive.”
