CAIRO (AP) — Iran has sentenced famed director Jafar Panahi to one year in prison in absentia, despite a new award for his latest film.
Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, posted on X that a Tehran court also imposed a two-year ban on Panahi from leaving Iran.
Panahi won three awards at the annual Gotham Awards in New York City on Monday night for “It Was Just an Accident,” which also won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in September. Panahi did not comment on the verdict and did not immediately say whether he planned to return to Iran.
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Panahi is one of the most famous directors in contemporary Iran, who has continued to make films despite being repeatedly imprisoned, banned from travel, and placed under house arrest by the Iranian authorities over the past 20 years. He was imprisoned in Iran for seven months until a hunger strike ended in 2023, after which “It Was Just an Accident” was secretly filmed in Iran.
He said the film is based on the stories of other inmates, a revenge drama in which a group of ex-inmates track down those they believe may have been their tormentors in prison. But it’s difficult to tell for sure because they were blindfolded when they were imprisoned.
France has chosen the film as an entry for the Academy Awards.
