The start of Hollywood’s awards season brought contrasting news for Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. On Monday night he appeared in New York to accept honors for his film It Was Just an Accident at the Gotham Awards, while hours earlier his lawyer said Panahi had been sentenced in absentia in Iran to one year in prison.
Mostafa Nili posted the news on X and told Agence France-Presse that the sentence also includes a two-year ban on leaving Iran and a prohibition on associating with political groups, on charges of “propaganda activities against the system.” Nili said Panahi’s legal team intends to appeal.
Panahi recently toured the U.S. to promote It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in May. The film, an international co-production from Iran, France and Luxembourg and France’s submission for best international feature at the Oscars, follows a group of former prisoners who consider taking revenge on a man they believe was their jailer. Like many Iranian filmmakers working under restrictions, Panahi shot the film in secret.
At the Gotham Awards, widely seen as the kickoff to awards season, Panahi collected three major prizes, including best international feature and best director. In accepting best original screenplay, speaking through an interpreter, he dedicated the award to “filmmakers who keep the camera rolling in silence, without support, and at times risking everything they have, only with their faith in truth and humanity.” He added that the dedication was a small tribute to filmmakers deprived of the right to see and be seen who nevertheless continue to create.
This is not Panahi’s first sentence. He was arrested in 2010 and received a 20-year ban on filmmaking, yet continued to make films covertly, including the documentary This Is Not a Film (2011) and Taxi (2015); the former was smuggled out of Iran on a USB stick. In 2022 he was detained for seven months after seeking information about charges against fellow filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof and was released in 2023 following a hunger strike.
Panahi is among Iran’s most internationally acclaimed directors, one of only four filmmakers to win top competitive prizes at Cannes, Venice and Berlin. Celebrated for resisting government censorship, he has repeatedly said he cannot imagine leaving Iran permanently and remains committed to making films there and supporting the next generation of Iranian filmmakers.