Iranian Court Sentences Award-Winning Filmmaker Jafar Panahi to Five Years in Prison
An Iranian Revolutionary Court has sentenced internationally acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi to five years in prison and ordered the confiscation of his assets, according to Iranian media reports citing his lawyer.
The court has also imposed a two-year travel ban and prohibited the 66-year-old director from engaging in social media activities for the same period.
According to British media, the Iranian news agency reporting the verdict did not disclose details of the charges against Panahi, who has repeatedly faced legal action over his criticism of the Iranian government.
Previous Arrests and Convictions
Panahi, one of Iran’s most internationally recognised filmmakers, has faced repeated arrests, imprisonment, travel restrictions and house arrest over the past two decades.
In 2025, he was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison on charges of engaging in propaganda activities against the Iranian establishment.
According to the report, Panahi returned to Iran in March 2026 following US and Israeli attacks on the country.
Despite years of restrictions imposed by Iranian authorities, Panahi has continued producing films, often working under difficult circumstances.
He previously spent seven months in prison before being released in 2023 following a hunger strike.
Cannes Palme d’Or Winner
Panahi’s latest film, It Was Just an Accident, won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the event’s highest honour.
The film was secretly produced in Iran despite restrictions on the director’s filmmaking activities.
The Cannes victory further strengthened Panahi’s international reputation as one of contemporary cinema’s most influential filmmakers.
Winner of Europe’s Three Major Film Awards
Panahi is among a small group of filmmakers to have won the highest honours at Europe’s three most prestigious international film festivals.
His film Taxi won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015.
Earlier, his film The Circle received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000.
With his Palme d’Or victory at Cannes in 2025, Panahi completed the rare achievement of winning all three major European film festival awards, commonly known as cinema’s “Big Three.”
Beyond these honours, he has received numerous international awards for his contributions to filmmaking.
The latest prison sentence marks another legal setback for the Iranian director, whose career has continued despite repeated restrictions imposed by authorities in Tehran.