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“Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” a documentary film about the spread of pro-war propaganda in Russian schools during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film was made by Russian teacher Pavel Talankin and American director David Borenstein.
“Mr Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country,” he said. “And what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small little acts of complicity,” Borenstein said in his acceptance speech. “In the name of our future, in the name of all of our children, stop all of these wars now.”
The film is based on video footage shot by Talankin at a secondary school in the city of Karabash in Russia’s Chelyabinsk Region, where he worked as a teacher and organized extracurricular activities. Even before February 2022, Talankin also served as the school’s videographer, a role that allowed him to continue filming developments without raising significant suspicions.
In 2024, Talankin fled Russia, taking the footage with him. With Borenstein’s help, it was turned into a documentary film. “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States in 2025, where it received a Special Jury Award. The film also won a BAFTA. This marks the third time in recent years that a film critical of the Russian government has won the award, following “Navalny” in 2023 and “20 Days in Mariupol” in 2024.
“One Battle After Another”
The Academy named “One Battle After Another,” directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, as Best Picture. Anderson also won the award for Best Director. In addition, the film won the award for Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Other notable winners included:
- Best Actor: Michael B. Jordan (“Sinners”)
- Best Actress: Jessie Buckley (“Hamnet”)
- Best Supporting Actress: Amy Madigan (“Weapons”)
- Best Animated Feature: “KPop Demon Hunters”
- Best Original Screenplay: Ryan Coogler (“Sinners”)