Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov has said that director Bryan Fogel’s documentary on doping in Russian sports had been awarded an Oscar in the wrong category.
Fogel’s “Icarus” chronicles the director's accidental entanglement in the Olympic doping saga after meeting former Moscow anti-doping lab head Grigory Rodchenkov. Rodchenkov fled to the U.S. after uncovering evidence of a Russian state-run doping scheme, a claim that Moscow denies.
“Icarus” nabbed the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscar awards ceremony on Sunday.
“The film ‘Icarus’ was given an Oscar in the wrong category," the RBC business portal cited Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov as saying Tuesday.
"It’s a good fantasy film and maybe deserves an award, but not as a documentary," Kolobkov added, saying that it was "a shame that such a respected organization as the American film academy mixed up the genres.
Fogel had dedicated the film's Oscar to Rodchenkov, “the fearless whistleblower who now lives in grave danger” and is wanted in Russia on drug-trafficking charges.
“We hope ‘Icarus’ is a wakeup call. Yes, about Russia, but more than that about the importance of telling the truth,” he said in his acceptance speech on Sunday.
