Russian teacher Pavel Talankin (2L) stands alongside US documentary filmmaker David Borenstein (L) as he accepts the award for Best Documentary Feature Film for ‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ onstage during the 98th Annual Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on March 15, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AFP
Mr. Nobody Against Putin has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature at the 98th Academy Awards.
The film’s central figure and co-director, Pavel Talankin, is a teacher and activities director in a small-town school in Russia who captures Vladimir Putin’s propaganda and patriotism program for the nation’s youth after its invasion of Ukraine.
Talankin smuggled the footage he’d shot out of the country and collaborated on the documentary with American director David Borenstein.
The other competition in the category came from The Alabama Solution, Cutting Through Rocks and Come See Me in the Good Light.
On the other hand, the award for Best Documentary Short went to All The Empty Rooms by Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones. The film documents the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings.
The war in Ukraine has loomed large in Oscar documentary categories since it began. The Associated Press documentary 20 Days in Mariupol won best documentary feature in 2024. Last year, Porcelain War about artists in the conflict, was a nominee. And this year’s documentary short nominees included Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud about an American journalist killed in the early weeks of the war.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin has a lighter tone than the others, and is almost comical at times, with Talankin at moments resembling his fellow Oscar winner Michael Moore.
Other major precursor awards including the Directors Guild and Producers Guild documentary awards went to films that weren’t even nominated for the Oscar, adding cloudiness to a category that’s annually hard to predict.
Published – March 16, 2026 07:57 am IST
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