Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose film It Was Just an Accident won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2025, has been sentenced to five years and one month in prison in a new case against him. He was already facing a one-year prison sentence for “propaganda against the regime”.
A court in Tehran sentenced Panahi in absentia, without notifying him of the hearing. The charges in the latest case remain unclear. The ruling also orders the confiscation of his assets, imposes a two-year travel ban and prohibits him from using social media.
Panahi and his lawyer, Mostafa Nili, learnt of the sentence only after the filmmaker’s bank accounts were frozen last week. Nili told Iranian news outlet Emtedad on Tuesday that they visited the prosecutor’s office to enquire about the freeze and discovered that Panahi had been convicted in his absence.
This is the third legal case Panahi is currently facing. In June, a Tehran court upheld a one-year prison sentence against him for “propaganda against the regime”. That ruling also imposed a two-year travel ban and barred him from joining political and social organisations.
Panahi has faced repeated action from Iranian authorities. In 2010, he spent nearly three months in prison before being released on bail. Later that year, he was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from making films, writing screenplays and travelling abroad for 20 years. He remained out of prison but was subject to restrictions.
Despite the ban, Panahi continued making films. This Is Not a Film (2011), Taxi (2015) and No Bears (2022) were all made during this period.
In July 2022, Panahi was arrested again and ordered to serve his 2010 sentence. He spent nearly seven months in prison before being released in February 2023.
His latest film, It Was Just an Accident, follows a group of former prisoners who suspect that a man they encounter is the person who tortured them in custody. The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2025 and received two Oscar nominations in 2026.
Despite the latest sentence, Panahi returned to Iran in March, after travelling to Los Angeles for the Oscars.
Speaking to Variety about his decision to return, he said, “I am the kind of person who needs to be in his country. I need to breathe there and work there. And even if they want to go ahead with that prison sentence, they can go ahead. Nothing will change my mind about going back.”
(Edited By Raunaq Lekhi)