Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has upheld the one-year prison sentence for Palme d’Or-winning film director Jafar Panahi, who was sentenced in December in absentia for engaging in propaganda against the Iranian state.
Panahi’s lawyer Mostafa Nili announced the court’s decision to reject the director’s appeal at a press conference in Tehran on Sunday, according to independent film journalist Mansour Jahani and others.
The decision can be appealed to the Tehran Provincial Court of Appeal within 20 days, the lawyer said. This means Mr Panahi will not be immediately jailed.
Director Panahi returned to Iran at the end of March, just after the 98th Academy Awards ceremony, where his latest film, “It Was Just an Accident,” entered the nomination stage as a French candidate in the international feature film category.
Panahi has had frequent clashes with Iranian authorities over the past two decades.
The world-renowned author, who is also known for award-winning films such as The Circle, Offside, This Is Not a Movie, Taxi and No Bears, was banned from making films, speaking to the press, or traveling in 2010, but secretly continued to make them.
In 2022, director Panahi was arrested in connection with protests by a group of filmmakers, but was released approximately seven months later.
The ban was lifted in April 2023, and Iranian authorities allowed Mr. Panahi to go to Cannes to present “It Was Just an Accident.” Mr. Panahi then traveled far and wide to promote the drama, which centers on a group of ex-prisoners’ outpouring of strong feelings against their torturous guards stemming from their own imprisonment.
