{"id":551123,"date":"2026-03-21T12:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T12:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/551123\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T12:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T12:04:14","slug":"mr-nobody-against-putin-team-on-their-oscar-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/551123\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Mr Nobody Against Putin’ Team on Their Oscar Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn a beautiful spring morning in Copenhagen, a newly minted superstar walked into the courtyard of the imposing Kunsthal Charlottenborg museum: Danish producer Helle Faber, whose \u201cMr. Nobody Against Putin\u201d pulled what many called an upset to win the Best Documentary Oscar just five days before. Unbeknownst to some of the many people stopping to congratulate her on the short walk we take together across the city\u2019s famous canal, the veteran is carrying the iconic golden statuette inside a raggedly discrete moss green tote bag.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Oscars<\/a> ceremony coincided with the opening weekend of Copenhagen\u2019s documentary festival CPH:DOX<\/a>, and the atmosphere in the Danish capital was one of immense national pride \u2014 and great support from the documentary industry, too. Sitting down over coffee, Faber says it feels a little \u201cinsane\u201d to be back in Denmark following a whirlwind few weeks in Los Angeles. On the plane home, the producer was invited to sit alongside the pilots in the cockpit \u2014 holding the Oscar safely on her lap, of course. As they landed, airport staff jetted 20-foot-tall columns of water into the sky, so Faber could be welcomed home with a rainbow. Everyone congratulated her, from security guards to Uber drivers to waitresses.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tHelle Faber sitting alongside pilots on her flight back home from Los Angeles to Copenhagen, courtesy of Helle Faber<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEverybody on the plane last night had their hands on this guy,\u201d jokes Faber as the Queen\u2019s marching band briefly interrupts our conversation with their daily midday procession. She gestures to get up to show me the fanfare and then remembers the statuette sitting on the table. It\u2019s like she can\u2019t quite believe it yet.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMr. Nobody Against Putin,\u201d directed by American filmmaker David Borenstein<\/a> and Russian schoolteacher-turned-filmmaker Pavel Talankin, sees the latter grant an inside view into how Russia turned schools into propaganda machines during the war in Ukraine. The doc, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025, had a slow-burning festival run, becoming an unlikely Oscar nominee for best documentary, and pulling one of the awards\u2019 biggest upsets when it won over Netflix-backed favorite \u201cThe Perfect Neighbor.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe were up against Netflix and what felt like all the publicists in the world,\u201d jokes a good-humored Faber. \u201cWe had to do everything by ourselves. It\u2019s been very grassroots. We relied on people offering free screenings; we couldn\u2019t afford Soho House previews, food and drinks or anything like that. We had to make it happen with people who just wanted to support us. We put a lot of effort into the digital campaign, so eventually it started to feel like we actually had some momentum. When we got the nomination, then, I thought we actually had a chance.\u201d She points out, however, that \u201cyou don\u2019t get anywhere without a strong film.\u201d \u201cAnd we had a strong film,\u201d she says with a smile.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tHelle Faber poses with the mighty Oscar statuette from a Copenhagen cafe, courtesy of Rafa Sales Ross<\/p>\n

\n\tSpeaking over the phone from Los Angeles while packing his bag ahead of flying back home to Copenhagen, Borenstein says the shock hasn\u2019t quite dissipated yet. \u201cThe last few days have been really, really crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director echoes Faber in his slow-burning confidence on their possible win ahead of the ceremony, adding they were \u201cthe last to start campaigning out of the Oscars shortlist.\u201d \u201cMany of these films have been campaigning since the beginning of the year, and we probably would have done the same thing if we had knowledge of what an Oscar campaign was. We didn\u2019t know about the process. It was definitely not until the fall that we started dreaming of the fact that maybe we could go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo how did it feel to have his name called up onstage on March 15? \u201cIt was a huge shock and then I immediately went into game mode, like, I\u2019ve got to get up there and give a speech. What you get thrown into after is a tremendous amount of pomp and circumstance. You get sent into this backstage area and do more interviews. Then immediately after, you have your team come celebrate with you, and you go to these parties.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tDavid Borenstein talks to the BBC from the disabled toilet at a post-Oscar party, courtesy of David Borenstein<\/p>\n

\n\tIn one such party, the filmmaker had to resort to a disabled bathroom when desperately searching for a quiet corner to give an interview to the BBC. \u201cI mean, that\u2019s the picture of the night,\u201d he funnily quips when sharing a snippet of himself, sitting on the toilet with a glass of champagne in one hand, a phone in the other, and his shiny new award sitting atop the sink. \u201cDefinitely nothing sank in on that night,\u201d he goes on. \u201cThe day after, I suddenly realized how tired I was. I didn\u2019t even get out of bed. It\u2019s crazy. I suppose it\u2019s sinking in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBorenstein gave the most openly political acceptance speech of the evening, where he said his film is about \u201chow you lose your country.\u201d \u201cAnd what we saw when working with this footage is that you lose it through countless small little acts of complicity. When we act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don\u2019t say anything when oligarchs take over the media and control how we can produce it and consume it. We all face a moral choice, but luckily, even a nobody is more powerful than you think.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tHelle Faber and David Borenstein with their Oscar statuettes, courtesy of David Borenstein<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked about why he felt it was so important to say such words on Hollywood\u2019s most prominent stage, the director says they made the film to \u201cshow what was behind the full-scale invasion of Ukraine,\u201d but, after premiering right at the beginning of Donald Trump\u2019s second term, the story \u201cstarted to take on a double meaning.\u201d \u201cIt became a broader story about how institutions and democracy die.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I was sitting at the ceremony, I knew I wanted to deliver a speech that was talking about Russia but also about the United States,\u201d he goes on. \u201cI thought it was important. What I learned about resistance is that, when we have the capacity to say something, it\u2019s important to say something. If Pasha, as a small-town teacher in Kaibosh, found his voice, then why can\u2019t the rest of us? He had so much at stake; we have much less. Let\u2019s just say what needs to be said.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFaber adds Borenstein\u2019s speech also fed into their overall strategy with \u201cMr. Nobody Against Putin.\u201d \u201cWhen you have a film that exposes a very brave man, you need to be brave as a director and as a producer,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m so happy about the speech David gave. Many people felt the film resonated with what is going on in the U.S. today. I also feel the Oscar show revealed that people don\u2019t want to talk about what is going on anymore. There were so few statements like that on that night. If it had been three years ago, it would have been something completely different. Everyone would have made some kind of statement against what is going on in the U.S. Maybe Hollywood has been silenced. Or it silenced itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tDavid Borenstein poses with the Oscar and the BBC Storyville\u2019s Lucie Kon, whom he called \u201cabsolutely key\u201d and \u201cthe first to support\u201d \u201cMr Nobody Against Putin<\/a>,\u201d courtesy of David Borenstein<\/p>\n

\n\tBorenstein highlights he\u2019s \u201cscared shitless of what\u2019s going to happen with the media landscape in America once Paramount gobbles up so much of the media landscape in this country,\u201d referring to the recently announced Paramount-Warner Bros. deal. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening right now in America is actually happening quicker than it happened in Russia during Putin\u2019s first few years. The scale of media consolidation we\u2019ve seen with CBS and what we\u2019re going to see with CNN and Paramount is really startling. If you don\u2019t protect your institutions, you will lose them. How are we not just screaming at the top of our lungs from very tall buildings?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelatedly, the director says he made his film in Denmark because it is \u201cso hard to get funding in America right now\u201d for a project like \u201cMr. Nobody Against Putin.\u201d Borenstein, who previously also lived in China, \u201cknew the strength of the Danish public system and how they had some of the only institutions that would invest in such a high-risk political project.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m an American who lives in Europe because this is where I can get the funding to make the films I want to make,\u201d he goes on. \u201cIt\u2019s really important to have alternative models to the American system, and important right now for Europe to be supporting itself and not allow technological trends and the media landscape in America to define it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tHelle Faber\u2019s plane pilot cheerfully poses with her Oscar statuette upon arrival to Copenhagen, courtesy of Helle Faber<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the last days of the Oscar trail, most of the film\u2019s European partners travelled to Los Angeles. Meeting everyone on the ground made Borenstein\u2019s \u201cheart full.\u201d \u201cWe were this big, awkward European Union team with people from the BBC, Czech and Danish film institutes, and broadcasters from all around Europe,\u201d he says. \u201cPart of me during this Oscars race thought we were not powerful. How could we ever go against streamers? But then at the Oscars, we had the loudest cheering section.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI just had this realization that we have so much strength in this international, European co-production model,\u201d he adds. \u201cWe had strong advocates passionate about the film in different countries, speaking different languages, and firmly behind our film. This gave us strength.\u201d Faber agrees, saying the Danish public film institutions allow producers \u201cto make films like this and take risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI can\u2019t underline enough how important the public institutions are in Denmark and all over the world,\u201d notes the producer. \u201cIn the U.S., you don\u2019t have that anymore. We must support these institutions in Europe if we want to secure democracy and freedom of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMr Nobody Against Putin\u201d is produced by Helle Faber at Made in Copenhagen and co-produced by Al\u017eb\u011bta Kar\u00e1skov\u00e1 and Radovan S\u00edbrt at Czech production company Pink. Other co-producers include the Danish Film Institute, Czech Film Fund, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, FilmFyn, Fritt ord, Hermod Lannungs Fond, BBC Storyville, DR, ZDF, ARTE, NRK, SVT, RTS, DR Sales, VPRO, UPP and Edithouse Fyn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a beautiful spring morning in Copenhagen, a newly minted superstar walked into the courtyard of the imposing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[49,48,200933,214025,49495,75,178138,18744],"class_list":["post-551123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cphdox","tag-david-borenstein","tag-documentaries-to-watch","tag-entertainment","tag-mr-nobody-against-putin","tag-oscars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}