She told the BBC that he’d flown multiple times with his Oscar and also his Bafta, both of which he’d won this year, across the US and on international flights, and never had any issues bringing his Oscar aboard.
“This wouldn’t have happened to Leonardo DiCaprio,” she said.
Talankin, the co-director and protagonist of the Best Feature Documentary winner, travels with the award often to showcase at events at screenings.
During this trip in New York, he passed it around an audience of students at a university during a Q&A session after a screening of the documentary.
The BBC has viewed video of Lufthansa staff using tape and bubble wrap to pack the Oscar into a box.
An Academy Award stands 13.5in tall (34cm) and weighs 8.5lb (3.9 kg). It reportedly costs from $400 to $1,000 to create the statuette.