The start of Hollywood’s awards season brought both triumph and setback for Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.
On Monday night Panahi was present in New York when his film It Was Just an Accident won multiple prizes at the Gotham Awards, which honor independent cinema. Hours earlier, his lawyer, Mostafa Nili, announced that Panahi had been sentenced in absentia in Iran to one year in prison. According to Nili, the ruling — reported to Agence France-Presse and posted on X — also includes a two-year travel ban and a prohibition on associating with political groups, on charges of “propaganda activities against the system.” Panahi’s legal team plans to appeal.
It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in May, follows a group of ex-prisoners in Iran who consider seeking revenge on a man they believe to be their former jailer. The international co‑production from Iran, France and Luxembourg is France’s submission for best international feature at the Oscars. Like many Iranian productions made under censorship, it was shot in secret.
At the Gotham Awards Panahi collected three major honors, including best international feature and best director. In his acceptance speech for best original screenplay, delivered 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 also called the dedication a small tribute to filmmakers “deprived of the right to see and to be seen, but continue to create and to exist.”
Panahi’s latest sentence is not the first. He was arrested in 2010 and given a sentence that included a 20‑year ban on filmmaking, prompting outrage from international figures such as Martin Scorsese. Despite restrictions, Panahi continued to make films clandestinely, including This Is Not a Film (2011) and Taxi (2015); the former was famously smuggled out of Iran on a USB stick.
In 2022 Panahi was arrested again after seeking information about charges against fellow filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof. He was detained for seven months and released in 2023 following a hunger strike.
One of Iran’s most celebrated directors, Panahi is among a small group of filmmakers to win top prizes at Cannes, Venice and Berlin. He is widely lauded for resisting government censorship and has said he cannot imagine leaving Iran permanently, remaining committed to making films there and mentoring the next generation of Iranian filmmakers.