After having to check his Academy Award during a flight over the Atlantic, Pavel Talankin, a recent Oscar winner, experienced the loss of his trophy before the airline managed to locate it two days later. Talankin, who co-directed the award-winning documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” was unexpectedly required to check his award for a flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Frankfurt, Germany, on Wednesday, as a Transportation Security Administration agent deemed it unsuitable for carry-on.
According to Talankin’s co-director, David Borenstein, a TSA agent halted Talankin at the airport, citing the Oscar as a potential weapon. Since Talankin lacked a bag to check it in, the TSA placed the Oscar in a box and sent it to the plane’s cargo hold, but it failed to reach Frankfurt.
Following Borenstein’s social media post that sparked global attention, Lufthansa airline announced on Friday that the missing Oscar had been located. The airline assured that the Oscar was now safe in Frankfurt and that they were coordinating its swift return to Talankin. They expressed regret for the inconvenience caused and issued an apology to the owner, mentioning an ongoing internal review of the incident.
In March, their documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” won the Academy Award for best documentary, with Talankin and Borenstein delivering a poignant acceptance speech during the ceremony. Talankin, known as the “Mr. Nobody” in the film, was a school teacher in Russia who recorded his students’ pro-Putin messages, later collaborating with Borenstein, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Talankin’s plea on stage in Russian, translated to English, urged for an end to wars for the sake of the future and children.
The TSA did not respond immediately to inquiries made on Friday.
