Jafar Panahi Wins New York Award and is Sentenced to Prison by Iran

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who took home this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes for It Was Just an Accident, has been handed a one-year prison sentence by Iranian authorities. The charge: “propaganda activities.” The verdict, delivered in absentia, also bars the 65-year-old director from joining any political or social organizations. His attorneys have announced plans to appeal the ruling. In a strange twist of timing, the news broke on the same day Panahi’s film won multiple Gotham Awards in New York.

Currently traveling abroad to promote It Was Just an Accident, Panahi finds himself once again at the center of both artistic acclaim and political controversy. The Cannes-winning drama—about five former prisoners confronting vengeance and forgiveness—has also been chosen as France’s official submission for the coming Academy Awards, putting Panahi squarely in the Oscar conversation.

Banned from filmmaking

While Panahi has at times been celebrated by the Iranian press, his outspokenness has long made him a target of the regime. In 2010 he was banned from filmmaking and international travel after supporting mass demonstrations. Defying the ban, he famously smuggled his documentary This Is Not a Film to Cannes on a flash drive hidden inside a cake. More recently, in 2022, he spent nearly three months behind bars after inquiring about fellow director Mohammad Rasoulof, who had been jailed for participating in a protest.

Despite the renewed crackdown, Panahi has said he intends to return to Iran after the current awards season wraps up—a decision that underscores both his defiant spirit and his enduring commitment to cinema.

(Michael Leahy. Source: Cannes-or-Bust. Photo: Jafar Panahi Production / les Films Pelléas)