"Oscar Shocker": 'Mr. Nobody Against Putin' Wins For Best Documentary Feature

Congratulations are in order for co-directors David Borenstein and Pavel “Pasha” Talankin, who won Best Documentary Feature at the 98th Academy Award for their film, Mr. Nobody Against Putina—a win that some are calling an "Oscar shocker" and "huge upset." Shot over the course of two years under the cover of Talankin’s job as school videographer, the doc follows the school’s rapid transformation into a war recruitment center after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. With the help of the film team and the BBC, Talankin was able to smuggle countless hours of footage out of Russia in order for Borenstein to piece together this eye-opening exposé on Putin’s propaganda and militarization tactics.

Borenstein said in his acceptance speech:

"Mr. Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country. What we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small little acts of complicity. When we act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities. When we don’t say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it. But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think."

Kino Lorber recently sat down with Borenstein to discuss the film’s urgent message and the impact it’s had on the international community. Watch our full interview here and stream the Oscar-winning Mr. Nobody Against Putin now on Kino Film Collection. 

Mr. Nobody Against Putin (2026)

"Mr. Nobody Against Putin" is a riveting first-person exposé of Russia's wartime student indoctrination program told through the eyes and lens of a small-town primary school teacher who dared to challenge the program and expose the truth. Winner of the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award.