Oscar belonging to co-director of Putin film missing after TSA makes him ship it

<p>Agents would not allow Pavel Talankin to carry statuette for Mr Nobody Against Putin onto flight from New York</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2026/feb/17/sign-up-for-the-breaking-news-us-email-to-get-newsletter-alerts-direct-to-your-inbox?utm_medium=ACQUISITIONS_STANDFIRST&amp;utm_campaign=BN22326&amp;utm_content=signup&amp;utm_term=standfirst&amp;utm_source=GUARDIAN_WEB">Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inbox</a></p></li></ul><p>The Oscar statuette belonging to Pavel Talankin, star and co-director of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/mar/16/mr-nobody-against-putin-wins-the-best-documentary-oscar">Academy award-winning</a> documentary <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/25/mr-nobody-against-putin-review">Mr Nobody Against Putin</a>, has disappeared after officials at New York’s John F Kennedy airport confiscated it before he boarded a flight, claiming it could be used as a weapon.</p><p>Talankin, whose documentation of Russia’s propaganda machine in grade schools won international acclaim, told <a href="https://deadline.com/2026/04/oscar-winners-missing-academy-award-1236877350/">Deadline</a> that he has brought the statuette on several flights without incident. But when he arrived at JFK’s terminal 1 on Wednesday morning, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents said he could not take the 8.5lb trophy on board because it posed a security risk.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/30/oscar-missing-pavel-talankin-putin-documentary">Continue reading...</a>