Oscar Upset: ‘Mr. Nobody Against Putin’ Producer Helle Faber Returns to Copenhagen
On a beautiful spring morning in Copenhagen, Helle Faber, the Danish producer of “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” walked into the courtyard of the Kunsthal Charlottenborg museum, clutching her newly-won Best Documentary Oscar in a moss green tote bag. Just five days prior, the film pulled off what many considered an upset at the Academy Awards.
The atmosphere in Copenhagen was one of immense national pride, coinciding with the opening weekend of CPH:DOX. Faber described her return to Denmark as “insane,” following a whirlwind few weeks in Los Angeles. On her flight home, she was invited to sit alongside the pilots, carefully holding the Oscar on her lap. As the plane landed, airport staff greeted her with 20-foot-tall columns of water, creating an impromptu rainbow welcome. “Everybody on the plane last night had their hands on this guy,” she joked, gesturing to the statuette.
“Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” directed by American filmmaker David Borenstein and Russian schoolteacher-turned-filmmaker Pavel Talankin, offers an inside look at how Russia allegedly turned schools into propaganda machines during the war in Ukraine. The documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025 and gained momentum throughout the awards season, ultimately surpassing Netflix-backed “The Perfect Neighbor” to claim the Oscar.
“We were up against Netflix and what felt like all the publicists in the world,” Faber said with a laugh. “We had to do everything by ourselves. It’s been very grassroots. We relied on people offering free screenings; we couldn’t 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 set 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.” She emphasized, however, that “you don’t acquire anywhere without a strong film.” “And we had a strong film,” she added with a smile.
Borenstein, speaking by phone from Los Angeles while packing for his return to Copenhagen, admitted the shock of the win hadn’t fully dissipated. “The last few days have been really, really crazy.”
He echoed Faber’s sentiment about the film’s slow-burning success, noting they were “the last to start campaigning out of the Oscars shortlist.” “Many 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’t 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.”
Borenstein described the moment his name was called onstage on as a “huge shock,” immediately followed by a surge of adrenaline to deliver his acceptance speech. The aftermath involved a flurry of interviews and celebrations. He recounted a particularly surreal moment during a post-Oscar party, finding himself giving an interview to the BBC from inside a disabled bathroom, a snapshot he shared with a glass of champagne and the Oscar perched on the sink.
During his acceptance speech, Borenstein delivered what was described as the most openly political statement of the evening, stating that his film was about “how you lose your country.” He elaborated on this point, explaining that the film revealed how complicity, even in small acts, can lead to such a loss. “When we act complicit when a government murders people on the streets of our major cities, when we don’t 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 suppose.”
Borenstein explained that he felt it was important to address both Russia and the United States in his speech. “I thought it was important. What I learned about resistance is that, when we have the capacity to say something, it’s important to say something. If Pasha, as a small-town teacher in Kaibosh, found his voice, then why can’t the rest of us? He had so much at stake; we have much less. Let’s just say what needs to be said.”
Faber added that the film’s political courage was intentional. “When you have a film that exposes a very brave man, you need to be brave as a director and as a producer,” she said. “I’m 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 demonstrate revealed that people don’t 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.”
Borenstein expressed concern about the evolving media landscape in America, particularly the recently announced Paramount-Warner Bros. Deal. “I’m scared shitless of what’s going to happen with the media landscape in America once Paramount gobbles up so much of the media landscape in this country,” he said. “The scale of media consolidation we’ve seen with CBS and what we’re going to see with CNN and Paramount is really startling. If you don’t protect your institutions, you will lose them. How are we not just screaming at the top of our lungs from very tall buildings?”
He also highlighted the challenges of securing funding for a politically charged project like “Mr. Nobody Against Putin” in the United States, explaining that he chose to produce the film in Denmark as of the strength of the Danish public film system. “I’m an American who lives in Europe because this is where I can get the funding to make the films I want to make,” he said. “It’s 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.”
Faber agreed, emphasizing the importance of public film institutions in Denmark and across Europe. “In the U.S., you don’t have that anymore. We must support these institutions in Europe if we want to secure democracy and freedom of speech.”
“Mr Nobody Against Putin” is produced by Helle Faber at Made in Copenhagen and co-produced by Alžběta Karásková and Radovan Síbrt at Czech production company Pink, with support from various European film institutes and broadcasters including the Danish Film Institute, Czech Film Fund, BBC Storyville, and ZDF.
Borenstein reflected on the collaborative spirit of the film’s European partners, describing their presence at the Oscars as a “big, awkward European Union team.” He credited this international co-production model with providing the strength and advocacy needed to compete against larger, more established players. “We had strong advocates passionate about the film in different countries, speaking different languages, and firmly behind our film. This gave us strength.”