The documentary “Mr. Nobody Against Putin”, about wartime propaganda in Russian schools, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature on March 15, 2026. The film was made by American director David Borenstein and former school videographer Pavel Talankin, who left Russia after working at School No. 1 in Karabash, Chelyabinsk region.
According to Novaya Europe, pro-government Russian TV channels and state media either ignored the award entirely or described the film in deliberately vague terms. As the outlet Agentstvo noted, Channel One, Rossiya 1, and NTV did not mention the win in their morning news broadcasts. TASS, RIA Novosti, and Interfax reported on other Oscar winners but omitted this one; TASS also quoted State Duma deputy Nikolai Burlyaev, who called the statuette a “yellow dummy.”
Some outlets also distorted the film’s subject. Kommersant and RBC described it as a story about “changes in schools after the start of the military operation,” Vedomosti cited the Kremlin as saying it was unfamiliar with the film, and Ura.ru published a headline calling it a movie “about President Vladimir Putin” before later deleting the piece. The regional outlet 74.ru labeled the film “anti-Russian,” and, according to Agentstvo, the Chelyabinsk edition of Moskovsky Komsomolets also removed its article.
International media, by contrast, focused on the film’s message and the speeches by its creators. The Guardian called it testimony to how children in Russia are drawn into war propaganda. Reuters described it as the story of a young teacher quietly resisting Russia’s war against Ukraine, while the Associated Press referred to Talankin as a teacher who opposed the war in Ukraine.
“For the sake of our future, for the sake of all our children, let’s stop all wars. Now,” Talankin said from the stage during the ceremony.
In his own remarks, Borenstein spoke about complicity, moral choice, and media control, and drew parallels between Russia and the United States. The Guardian noted that this is the third time in a decade that the Oscar in this category has gone to a film critical of the Russian authorities, after “Navalny” in 2023 and “20 Days in Mariupol” in 2024.