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Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has received a prison sentence of five years and one month in absentia from Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court.
The Oscar-nominated director returned to his homeland earlier this year after a global awards campaign for his thriller “It Was Just an Accident,” which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2025 ahead of a special Academy Awards campaign. Panahi was arrested and imprisoned several times by the Iranian authorities, and was placed under house arrest and banned from filmmaking activities.
IndieWire learned of the indictment from a publication by Mansour Jahani, an independent film journalist based in Tehran who has regularly covered Panahi’s legal ramifications. According to the report, Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said Panahi was also issued a two-year travel ban and a two-year social media activity ban.
Nili also said that Panahi’s bank accounts were frozen last week. This prompted a meeting with the Judicial Enforcement Unit of Iran’s Cultural and Media Prosecutor’s Office, which revealed that Panahi had received his new sentence in absentia. According to Nili, authorities say they could not reach Panahi because he was abroad, but the filmmaker has been in Iran since he returned home in March and even appeared before another branch of the Office in September. Nili says Panahi was not notified of a hearing date for the case.
Panahi’s regular legal punishments from the Iranian authorities have paralleled his position as one of the country’s most prominent representatives in world cinema. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for “The Circle,” and the Golden Bear at the Berlinale for “Taxi” in 2015.
Panahi often does his work covertly, incorporating his legal restrictions into his approach and plots. In 2010, the Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced him to six years in prison and a 20-year ban from making films. In December 2025, he was sentenced to a year in prison on charges of “propaganda activity” against Iran. Panahi was in the United States to promote “It Was Just an Accident” at the time, leading a campaign that led to Oscar nominations for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay.
