Just because someone won an Oscar doesn’t mean security personnel will allow them to take it on an airplane as a carry-on.
Pavel Talankin, who won an Oscar for “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” was told by TSA officials at JFK Airport that he could not board his flight with the award because it could be used as a weapon, Deadline reported.
The award, which Talankin said he has traveled with without incident for several weeks, weighs about 8.5 pounds.
“It’s completely baffling how they consider an Oscar a weapon,” he told Deadline, “[I] flew with it in the cabin, and there never was any kind of problem.”
A Lufthansa agent offered to walk Talankin to the gate and keep possession of the Oscar, but the TSA agent said no.
The filmmaker suggested keeping it in the cockpit, but both the TSA and a Lufthansa supervisor said no.
So he was forced to check it with Lufthansa, giving him a cardboard box to carry it to Frankfurt. Agents wrapped the statue in bubble wrap and gave him a claim tag.
But upon landing in Frankfurt, the Oscar did not meet him there.
News of the missing award was shared on Instagram by Talankin’s co-director, David Borenstein, Variety reported.
Two days after it was lost, the Oscar was found.
Lufthansa told Deadline that it had been found and “is safely in our care in Frankfurt,” adding that it was in contact with Talankin to get it back to him “as quickly as possible.”
“We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and have apologized to the owner,” the airline told Deadline.
The film, “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” follows Talankin, a Russian school teacher, as his primary school in Western Russia transforms from a typical school to a ”propaganda-fueled disinformation site amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war," according to Entertainment Weekly.
Talankin and Borenstein’s film also won a BAFTA Award for Best Documentary and the Special Jury Award at Sundance.
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