Iran won’t let Jafar Panahi make films. It won’t let him travel. Now it won’t let him go free either. The court has spoken, and the clock is ticking.
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Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has confirmed a one-year prison term against award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. The ruling, announced on June 7, rejected the director’s appeal against an earlier verdict.
Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, announced on Sunday that the Tehran Revolutionary Court rejected his objections to the ruling and upheld the verdict in full. The sentence can now be appealed to the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal within twenty days, meaning it will not lead to Panahi’s immediate incarceration.
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Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran originally sentenced Panahi in absentia to one year in prison, a two-year ban on leaving the country, and a ban on membership in political and social groups or factions, for propaganda activities against the regime.
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In an interview with Iranian media outlet Emtedad, Nili said Panahi had been found guilty of making an “underground and problematic film against the establishment,” of supporting political and security prisoners, of backing popular protests against the government, supporting the “Woman, Life, Freedom” slogan, of signing and disseminating a statement in support of a truck drivers’ strike, of “painting a bleak picture” of the current state of the country, and of reposting a video clip of a protest.
Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran sentenced Panahi in absentia on December 1, 2025. The verdict came while he was abroad. Panahi’s lawyer Mostafa Nili shared with AFP that the sentence includes a two-year travel ban and a prohibition from membership in any political or social groups.
Panahi returned to Iran at the end of March, shortly after the ceremony for the 98th Academy Awards, in which his latest film “It Was Just An Accident” made it to the nomination stage as France’s candidate in the Best International Feature Film category.
Panahi won this year’s Palme d’Or for “It Was Just An Accident,” the first time an Iranian filmmaker claimed the top Cannes prize since Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry in 1997. The film depicts five Iranians confronting a man they believed had tortured them in jail. France selected the movie as its submission for the Academy Awards. Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called the film a “gesture of resistance against the Iranian regime’s oppression.” In response, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the senior French diplomat in Tehran.
It Was Just an Accident was the first film Panahi made after spending 86 days in Iran’s notorious Evin prison on charges of anti-government activity dating back to 2010.
Panahi’s legal troubles with Iranian authorities go back decades. In 2010, Panahi was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, plus a 20-year ban on filmmaking and travel, for propaganda against the state and for colluding against national security. He served three months before being released on bail.
Most recently, he spent seven months in the country’s notorious Evin prison after being arrested in July 2023 when he went to the prison to inquire about the whereabouts of fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, who had been arrested a few days earlier. It was announced a few days later that the Iranian authorities had decided to reactivate a six-year sentence originally meted out to Panahi in 2010 alongside a 20-year filmmaking and travel ban.
The ban was lifted in April 2023, and Iranian authorities allowed Panahi to travel to Cannes to launch “It Was Just an Accident.”
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