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Jafar Panahi's prison sentence confirmed by Iranian court
Jafar Panahi's prison sentence confirmed by Iranian court
Scott Roxborough06/08/2026June 8, 2026Following a retrial for a verdict that had been reached while the prominent Iranian director was abroad, the Revolutionary Court in Tehran has upheld a one-year jail sentence.
https://p.dw.com/p/5EzulA Tehran Revolutionary Court has fully upheld an in-absentia verdict against prominent Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, which sentences him to one year in prison on the charge of engaging in propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as a two-year travel ban. Panahi is also prohibited from joining political and social groups and associations, Panahi's lawyer Mostafa Nili told Iranian media outlet Emtedad on Sunday.
The grounds cited for the verdict include making an "underground and problematic film against the establishment," supporting political prisoners and backing popular protests against the government, including the "Woman, Life, Freedom" demonstrations.
The initial court ruling against Panahi had been issued while he was abroad, promoting his film "A Simple Accident" and being honored with prizes at the Gotham Awards in New York.
After it won the 2025 Palme d'Or, the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, "A Simple Accident" went on to be selected to represent France at the Academy Awards.
After attending the Oscars, Panahi returned to Iran on March 30, despite the in-absentia prison sentence.
Not the first conviction for Jafar Panahi
For decades, the director has experienced censorship and imprisonment in his home country of Iran, even though he never set out to be a political filmmaker.
"In my definition, a political filmmaker defends an ideology where the good follow it and the bad oppose it," the Iranian director told DW during the Cannes festival 2025. "In my films, even those who behave badly are shaped by the system, not personal choice."
But for more than a decade, Panahi, has had little choice. Following his support for the opposition Green Movement protests, the director of "The White Balloon" and "The Circle" was handed a 20-year ban on filmmaking and international travel in 2010 by Iranian authorities. That didn't stop him.
Over the years, he found new ways to shoot, edit and smuggle out his films — from turning his living room into a movie set ("This Is Not a Film," 2011) to using a car as a mobile studio (in "Taxi," which won the Golden Bear at the 2015 Berlinale).
He was arrested in July 2022 and detained in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. After almost seven months and a hunger strike, he was released in February 2023. In a stunning legal victory, Iran's Supreme Court overturned his original 2010 sentence. Panahi was legally free, but artistically still bound by a system he refuses to submit to.
"To make a film in the official way in Iran, you have to submit your script to the Islamic Guidance Ministry for approval," he told DW. "This is something I cannot do. I made another clandestine film. Again."
That film, "It Was Just An Accident," may be Panahi's most direct confrontation yet with state violence and repression. Shot in secret and featuring unveiled female characters in defiance of Iran's hijab law, the movie tells the story of a group of ex-prisoners who believe they've found the man who tortured them — and must decide whether to exact revenge. The taut, 24-hour drama unfolds like a psychological thriller.
Filmmaking as the only option
Despite a career defined by resistance, Panahi insists he's simply doing the only thing he knows how. "During my 20-year ban, even my closest friends had given up hope that I would ever make films again," he said at the Cannes press conference for "It Was Just An Accident" in May 2025.
"But people who know me know I can't change a light bulb. I don't know how to do anything except make films."
That single-minded dedication is what kept him going, even at his lowest.
"I remember just before I was given this very heavy sentence of 20 years, banned from making films and from traveling, and I thought: 'What will I do now?' For a little while, I was really upset," he recalled. "Then I went to my window, I looked up and I saw these beautiful clouds in the sky. I immediately got my camera. I thought: 'This is not something they can take away from me, I can still take pictures of the clouds.'
"Those photos were later exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris ... There's no way they can stop me from making films. If cinema is really what is sacred for you, what gives sense to your life, then no regime, no censorship, no authoritarian system can stop you."
Why did Panahi return to Iran?
While many Iranian filmmakers have fled into exile — including Panahi's close friend Mohammad Rasoulof, director of the Oscar-nominated "The Seed of the Sacred Fig," who now lives in Germany — Panahi said he has no plans to join them. "I'm completely incapable of adjusting to another society," he said. "I had to be in Paris for three and a half months for post-production, and I thought I was going to die."
In Iran, he explained, filmmaking is a communal act of improvisation and trust. "At 2 a.m., I can call a colleague and say: 'That shot should be longer.' And he'll come join me and we'll work all night. In Europe, you can't work like this. I don't belong."
Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier
A longer version of this profile of Jafar Panahi was first published in May 2025. It was updated on June 8, 2026 to reflect the filmmaker's prison sentence being upheld.
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