Jafar Panahi’s Prison Sentence Appeal Sets Hearing Date in Iran
The director, who in 2025 won Cannes' Palme d'Or for 'It Was Just an Accident,' was sentenced to one year in prison in absentia early December.
Palme d’Or-winning director Jafar Panahi has set a hearing date in Iran after filing an appeal against his sentencing for “propaganda activities against the regime” by the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
On Dec. 1, the dissident Iranian filmmaker was handed a one-year prison sentence in absentia and a two-year travel ban, as well as a ban on membership in political and social groups or factions.
Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, wrote on social media Friday: “After appealing against the one-year prison sentence for propaganda activities against the regime of Mr. Jafar Panahi, Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court has set the hearing date for January 4, 2026.” His lawyer did not immediately make clear whether the director will be in attendance at the Jan. 4 hearing.
Panahi’s latest legal and political run-in with Iranian authorities follows him having won the top prize in Cannes last year for It Was Just an Accident, a thriller that follows an ex-political prisoner who kidnaps a man he believes to be his torturer and then debates, with other dissidents, whether to kill or forgive him. The movie is considered a direct assault on Iran’s authoritarian regime.
He was arrested and imprisoned in 2022 — and held in Iran’s notorious Evin prison — for going to the prosecutor’s office to inquire about a fellow Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof, arrested that year for protesting. Panahi was only released in 2023 after going on hunger strike.
The filmmaker was also convicted in 2010 of anti-government activity, but it was not enforced. His arrest in 2022 after his inquiry about Rasoulof was on the basis of the 2010 conviction. Panahi was then released because the courts said the 2010 conviction could not be enforced, since the government took too long to do so.
Over the last few months, Panahi has been traveling on the film festival circuit promoting It Was Just an Accident. The film is France’s submission for best international feature film at the 2026 Academy Awards, was nominated for four Golden Globes and won three Gotham Awards, including best international feature and best director.
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