Both celebrated their Spanish premiere at the DocsBarcelona Festival 2025
Mr. Nobody Against Putin is showing until the end of December in theaters and cinemas of Docs del Mes, the programming circuit of DocsBarcelona
The documentary films Mr. Nobody Against Putin and Cutting Through Rocks, distributed by DocsBarcelona Distribution, have been shortlisted for the 98th Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature Film category, as announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin, by David Borenstein and Pasha Talankin, exposes the indoctrination and militarization in Russian schools through videos recorded by a courageous elementary school teacher who infiltrates his own school to reveal to the world what really happens in the classrooms. Cutting Through Rocks, by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni, portrays a nonconformist and courageous Iranian woman who becomes the first female councilor in her conservative region, defying patriarchal norms by promoting girls’ education and women’s rights, even facing resistance from her own community.
Both films premiered in Spain at the DocsBarcelona 2025 Festival, where they competed in the Official Selection and became audience favorites. Furthermore, Mr. Nobody Against Putin is the Docs del Mes for December, so it will be showing until the end of the month in theaters and cinemas throughout the territory that are part of the DocsBarcelona programming circuit.
Bold, contemporary documentary cinema with international impact
This shortlisting represents a highly prestigious recognition of DocsBarcelona’s work and its commitment to courageous, contemporary documentary cinema with international impact. Both films stand out for their incisive and unflinching examination of highly complex realities and for their committed cinematic narrative, which embraces risks and responsibilities and refuses to be complacent.
In addition to Mr. Nobody Against Putin and Cutting Through Rocks , the full list of documentaries preselected includes the following titles:
The Alabama Solution; Apocalypse in the Tropic; Coexistence, My Ass!; Come See Me in the Good Light; Cover-Up; Folktales; Holding Liat; Mistress Dispeller; My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 – Last Air in Moscow; The Perfect Neighbor; Seeds; 2000 Meters to Andriivka and Yanuni. The nominees will be announced on January 22, 2026, and the awards ceremony will be held on March 15, 2026, in Los Angeles.
From DocsBarcelona we want to congratulate all the selected filmmakers and teams, and especially those who have trusted in our distribution work to accompany their films on their journey to the public and in our work as a festival showcase for the best documentary cinema of the year.
