On March 15, a Gator graced the Oscars stage to take home the award for best documentary feature film.
David Borenstein, a UF 2009 alumnus, directed the film “Mr Nobody Against Putin” with Russian videographer Pavel “Pasha” Talankin, who doubles as the film’s main character.
The 90-minute documentary focuses on indoctrination within Russia during its war with Ukraine. In it, a classroom is transformed from a place of learning into a recording studio for pro-war propaganda.
As he stood atop the Oscars stage, Borenstein delivered a compelling speech urging all the “Mr. Nobodies” of the world to not be complicit with tyrannical governments.
“Institutions are something that you need to treat like a garden,” he later told The Alligator. “They need water, they need sunshine, they need love and care. If we don't protect them, then bad actors in society will transform them into tools that help them accomplish their own missions.”
Reflecting on his days at UF, he tied the themes of his speech back to his earlier days as a student activist, urging the university to divest from the Iraq War. Borenstein encouraged students to stand at the frontlines when an institution is acting objectionably.
The winning film is shot largely from Talankin’s point of view. The Russian government ordered Talankin, a primary school teacher, to record and submit videos of pro-war lessons to verify their existence. Disgusted, Talankin found Borenstein through a casting call for individuals whose jobs had been affected by the war, and the duo began working on the film.
The film was originally projected to be a geopolitical thriller, according to Borenstein. But Talankin’s footage brought the documentary a distinct tone. It was no longer a film just about war, but about the community that holds a war-torn town together.
“The footage with Pasha and his students had so much joy and love in it, and it gave a lot of opportunities to create a quite unique tone in a film that is, at its heart, still about war and how war impacts a school,” Borenstein said.
Working with a foreign filmmaker in Russia came with rules. Borenstein said as the film developed, it became increasingly risky to work with Talankin. Videos had to be sent through an encrypted FTP server, and communication about the film was kept to a minimum to ensure Talankin’s safety.
As a result, Talankin wasn’t even sure if the film was being made as he filmed it.
“The first thing [Talankin] said to me when he finally saw the cut of the film in Istanbul was, ‘David, I was 50% certain this whole thing was a scam,’” Borenstein said.
Sending footage away for years and getting nothing in return took a psychological toll on Talankin, Borenstein said. But both sides wanted the film to happen so much that they persisted despite the lack of trust.
While the risk would eventually pay off, it came with safety concerns that didn’t end even after the film came out. Most importantly, Borenstein and his team had to seek asylum for Talankin in the European Union, which was granted in July 2025.
After ensuring his safety, the team moved forward in their awards campaign, fighting against documentaries from media giants like Netflix, whose film “The Perfect Neighbor” also received a nomination in the category. “Mr Nobody Against Putin” operated on small funds from various sources, which Borenstein described as an “awkward United Nations of people.”
“We did a DIY campaign,” Borenstein said. “We slept on couches. We just found the cheapest tickets to go around.”
All this campaigning left Borenstein exhausted, he said. By the time the Oscars rolled around, his mind was “blank.”
Accepting things the way they are is never an option for Borenstein, said Jennifer Forshee, a Santa Fe College political science professor who met Borenstein when she was a teaching assistant. He was one of her very first students, and Forshee even wrote a letter of recommendation for Borenstein’s Fulbright Scholar application, a distinction Borenstein would receive and use to work in China for 10 years.
Forshee believes Borenstein’s natural curiosity is one of his greatest strengths.
“When he decided that he was going to study Chinese, I knew that he was someone who was just not ever going to take anybody's word for what was happening in the world. He wanted to see it for himself,” Forshee said.
When he wasn’t examining the world around him, Borenstein spent his college days playing saxophone as a founding member of the 18-piece Gainesville band, Umoja Orchestra. The group toured the nation playing their unique flavor of world music.
Borenstein stays in touch with many of the band members to this day, including 39-year-old music teacher Evan Garfield, whom Borenstein has known since middle school.
Watching someone he’s known since childhood win an Oscar was “surreal,” Garfield said.
“I couldn't believe I was watching David Borenstein, who in so many ways is like this serious, accomplished person, but he's also such a silly, playful person to me. It almost felt to me like he had pulled one over on the world,” Garfield said. “The fact that David Borenstein was walking up to deliver an Oscars speech — it's like he beat the system or something.”
Borenstein is already at work on his next project, titled “Living in Our Heads.” Not much has been revealed about the project as of yet, as Borenstein said the sources he is working with are very sensitive, and talking about the project too soon could compromise it.
Contact Christopher Rodriguez at crodriguez@alligator.org. Follow him on X @ChrisRodri29386.
