‘Navalny’ Director Daniel Roher Dedicates Best Doc Oscar to Political Prisoner: “The World Has Not Forgotten Your Vital Message”

As Navalny won best documentary feature film at the 2023 Oscars, filmmaker Daniel Roher dedicated the award to the film’s namesake political prisoner and Putin critic while Navalny’s wife told her husband to “stay strong.”

After director Roher took to the Dolby Theatre stage with Alexei Navalny’s wife Yulia and his children Dasha and Zakhar on Sunday, he noted to the audience that the Russian opposition leader could not be present at the ceremony. (Navlany, a prominent critic of Vladimir Putin, has been imprisoned in Russia since March 2021 and has said he is in solitary confinement.) “I would like to dedicate this award to Navalny, to all political prisoners around the world,” said Roher in his speech. “Alexei, the world has not forgotten your vital message to us all. We cannot, we must not be afraid to oppose dictators and authoritarianism wherever it rears its head.”

Yulia Navalnaya also spoke during the acceptance speech, telling the audience, “My husband is in prison just for telling the truth. My husband is in prison just for defending democracy.” Then she addressed her husband: “Alexei, I am dreaming of the day when you will be free and our country will be free. Stay strong, my love.”

This is Roher’s first Academy Award and his first nomination. His film, which chronicles Navalny in the wake of an attempt on his life (which the European Union has stated would only be possible with the “consent of the Presidential Executive Office” of Russia, though Russia has denied that claim), beat out All That Breathes, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love and A House Made of Splinters for the best documentary feature Oscar. Though he recovered from the assassination attempt in Germany, Navalny returned to Russia in 2021, only to face imprisonment.

Earlier in his speech, Roher also lauded the “extraordinary crop of documentary filmmakers” that were nominated in the category at the 2023 Oscars and praised the journalists he worked with on the project, including Christo Grozev and Maria Pevchikh. “It’s investigative journalists like you,” he said, “that empower our work.”

Backstage after he accepted the award, Roher added, “I want to make sure that Navalny gets out of prison one day, [that] he survives this ordeal.” He said, “Navalny should be free, that’s [what] I want the world to remember today.”

The 2023 Oscars, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, took place at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday and were broadcast live on ABC.

See the star-studded Oscars red carpet arrivals.