98th Academy Awards - Press Room
Pavel Talankin, front center, and Radovan Sibrt, top left, Alzbeta Karaskova, David Borenstein, and Helle Faber, winners of the award for documentary feature film for "Mr. Nobody against Putin," pose in the press room at the Oscars on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
As featured on
“Mr. Nobody Against Putin” has won the Oscar for best documentary feature. The film’s central figure and co-director is a teacher and activities director in a small-town school in Russia. He captures Vladimir Putin’s propaganda and patriotism program for the nation’s youth after the invasion of Ukraine. Pavel Talankin smuggled the footage he’d shot out of the country and collaborated on the documentary with American director David Borenstein. The two men gave the night some of its most overtly political moments during their speeches. It’s the second film in three years about the Russia-Ukraine war to win the documentary feature Oscar.
