Oscar-winning director Pavel Talankin has revealed his Academy Award has gone missing after he was forced to check it in for a flight.

Talankin, a Russian teacher and documentary-maker, took home the statuette after his film Mr Nobody Against Putin won the Best Feature Documentary accolade at this year’s ceremony.

But just a few months later, the award is now missing after he was forced to put it in the hold compartment on a flight.

Talankin told Deadline that he arrived for a flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy airport with his Oscar in hand on Wednesday, but Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials told him he couldn’t take the prize onboard as it could be used as a weapon.

The director, who said he has flown with the Oscar in his cabin luggage more than a dozen times since his win in March, said he was told: “You have to check it under the plane.” As he didn’t have his own packaging for it, the Oscar was placed into a cardboard box provided by airline Lufthansa – but when the flight…