Czech Oscar joy: Co-produced documentary Mr. Nobody Against Putin among winners
This year’s Oscars brought joy to Czech filmmakers, too, as the statuette for the best documentary went to the Czech–Danish co-production Mr. Nobody Against Putin.
On Sunday, March 15, the Oscars for 2025 were awarded in Los Angeles and Czechia is celebrating success after Mr. Nobody Against Putin won the Oscar for Best Feature Documentary. Created in a co-production with Denmark, the documentary highlights the influence of wartime propaganda in Russian schools during Russia’s war on Ukraine. Given the topic the documentary covers and the circumstances under which it was made, the filmmakers’ acceptance speeches during the ceremony were among the most moving of the evening.
"Mr. Nobody Against Putin is about how you lose your country, and what we saw while working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small acts of complicity. When we act complicitly, when a government murders people in the streets of our major cities, when we don’t say anything, when oligarchs take over the media and control how we produce and consume it, we all face a moral choice. But luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think."
Director David Borenstein said on stage after receiving the award. His speech was followed by another powerful message from the film’s co-director Pavel Talankin.
“For four years we have looked at the sky for shooting stars to make a very important wish. But there are countries where, instead of shooting stars, there are shooting bombs and shooting drones. In the name of our future and in the name of our children, stop all of these wars now.”
The film uses two years of footage shot by Talankin to show how the Russian state indoctrinates students with pro-war messages. The videographer also documents his own persecution and eventual exile. The award is also being celebrated in Czechia, as two Czech producers, Alžběta Karásková and Radovan Síbrt, collaborated on the film.
“Pavel Talankin sacrificed the life he loved because he chose to speak out about the lies taking place in Russia and was not afraid to risk his life. For us, it is deeply gratifying that his story is now receiving attention on such a significant international platform. Thanks to the Oscar, more and more people will now see the film. It is extremely important that Pavel’s sacrifice was not in vain.”
Says Radovan Síbrt adding that the film resonates with a broad audience because its message goes beyond the war in Ukraine.
“It is an anti-war film about how an individual can stand up for themselves, can stand up against the majority opinion, and can change the world around them—or at least try to. It shows how easily we can lose our freedom, how the steps toward that loss can be small and almost unnoticed, yet happen very quickly. That message, for example, resonates quite strongly here in America after the arrival of Donald Trump’s new administration. So people don’t see it only as a Russian-Ukrainian story; they see stories in it that are unfolding in their own countries as well.”
Mr. Nobody Against Putin premiered on January 25, 2025, at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award. It went on to receive the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary in February 2026. Following the Oscars ceremony, the filmmakers expressed hope that the accolade would help bring the film to a wider audience.
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