Pro-Ukraine group asks Oscar voters not to support Top Gun over alleged ties to Russian oligarch

A non-government-affiliated organization called Ukrainian World Congress that represents various Ukrainian communities around the world is asking the Motion Picture Academy not to support Top Gun: Maverick during Sunday’s Academy Awards, but it has nothing to do with, say, the apparent glorification of war or any other arguments you could make about the content of the film. It’s actually because production company New Republic Pictures—which made a deal with Paramount during the pandemic to fund a big chunk of 10 movies, including Maverick and the new Mission: Impossible movies—has allegedly been quietly controlled by a Russian oligarch named Dmitry Rybolovlev.

That information came out a few months ago when Rybolovlev was sued by Bradley Fischer, New Republic’s now-former president, who claims he was “terminated without cause” after Rybolovlev pulled his money out of the company when Russia invaded Ukraine and governments around the world started imposing sanctions on Russian oligarchs. That’s not really relevant here, but what matters is that Rybolovlev has allegedly been a “silent partner” in New Republic this whole time, meaning Top Gun: Maverick may have been partially funded with Russian oligarch money.

The Los Angeles Times now says that the Ukrainian World Congress is speaking out about “its serious concerns over Russia’s influence on the Hollywood film industry,” specifically “the nomination of Top Gun: Maverick for six prizes at the 95th Academy Awards.” The UWC argues that, since nobody knew Rybolovlev was apparently involved, it “may have led to censorship on behalf of the Kremlin.” The organization even has an interesting argument for that: “Unlike the original film, Top Gun: Maverick makes no direct or indirect reference to Russia. This is hardly a coincidence.” Maverick, of course, notably does not name its enemy combatants at all.

It seems unlikely that anything will come of this, since the Oscars are only a couple of days away, but also Rybolovlev was not included on the list of Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the U.S. government (though he was included on a similar list by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky), and it seems a little weird for the Motion Picture Academy—which allowed a slap to happen last year, gasp!—to operate on different standards than the federal government.