Iranian court sentences filmmaker Jafar Panahi to five years in absentia
Developing story first seen 4 hours ago
Iran’s Branch 26 Revolutionary Court has sentenced filmmaker Jafar Panahi in absentia to five years and one month in prison. The new judgment adds to the legal pressure on the internationally acclaimed director and political activist, who is currently in Iran but has not been imprisoned under this sentence.
The court also ordered the confiscation of his movable and immovable assets and imposed two-year bans on travel and social media activity. Panahi’s lawyer says his bank accounts were frozen and the judgment was issued without prior notice; Panahi returned to Iran in March 2026 and has three open legal cases. He has previously served seven months in prison, while his film *It Was Just an Accident* won the Cannes Palme d’Or and received an Oscar nomination representing France.
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In short
- Panahi was sentenced to five years and one month in absentia.
- The ruling includes asset confiscation and two-year bans.
- He is in Iran and has not yet been imprisoned under this sentence.
How this story developed
- 2 hours ago Panahi’s lawyer said his bank accounts had been frozen and the ruling came without prior notice; Panahi had not yet been imprisoned, despite the sentence, and faces several active cases in Iran.
- 2 hours ago Jafar Panahi, an acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and political activist who returned to Iran in March 2026, was sentenced in absentia to five years and one month in prison by a Tehran Revolutionary Court, which also ordered his assets confiscated and imposed two-year travel and social media bans.
Full account
Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi has been sentenced in absentia to five years and one month in prison by Branch 26 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, according to reports citing his lawyer and an independent film journalist. The court also ordered the seizure of his assets and imposed two-year bans on travel and social media activity. Panahi is in Iran and has not been imprisoned under this latest sentence.
His lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said Panahi learnt of the case after his bank accounts were frozen. The pair then visited the Culture and Media Prosecutor’s Office, where they were told a judgment had been issued without prior notice or a formal summons, according to the accounts. Nili said Panahi has three cases open in Iran. The reports describe this latest ruling as a separate case from a one-year sentence imposed in 2025 for alleged propaganda activity against the state.
Panahi returned to Iran in March 2026 after spending much of the preceding period abroad promoting It Was Just an Accident. The film won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for the Academy Award for international feature film as France’s entry. His return followed public criticism of a deadly crackdown on anti-government protests, though the reports differ in their descriptions of the scale of the deaths.
The director has faced repeated prosecution and imprisonment. A six-year sentence dating from 2010 was put into effect in 2022, and he spent seven months in Evin prison before his release in February 2023. The earlier case was linked to his political activities and a film project, while restrictions at the time included a long-term ban on film-making and travel. Panahi has continued directing, with works including The White Balloon, The Circle and Taxi receiving major festival awards.
Where outlets differ
From the full account, which is AI-written from the sources:
The Hollywood Reporter account cites Tehran-based journalist Mansour Jahani and gives a detailed chronology of the retrial and other proceedings; Deadline attributes the latest details to lawyer Mostafa Nili via local reporting and focuses more on Panahi’s awards campaign and return to Iran.
The reports describe the protest death toll differently: Source 1 says thousands, while Source 2 says tens of thousands are believed to have died. Neither figure is independently established in the supplied reports.
Source 1 says the new judgment followed a retrial ordered after an earlier one-year sentence and a filmmaking ban; Source 2 presents the 2025 one-year sentence as a separate ruling and does not give the same retrial chronology.
Source 2 says Panahi went to prison in 2022 to ask about detained fellow film-makers and links the earlier sentence to his attendance at a 2009 funeral and a planned film. Source 1 does not include that context.
Explained simply
Jafar Panahi is an Iranian film director whose work has brought him international recognition. He has also criticised Iran’s authorities, and his films have faced restrictions in Iran.
Panahi has previously been jailed and has faced several legal cases in Iran. His recent return to the country means those cases may affect him directly; a sentence issued in absentia is made while the defendant is not present in court.
The case matters because it involves both a prominent artist’s freedom to work and travel and the Iranian state’s treatment of critics. Panahi’s films have continued to reach audiences abroad, including through major international awards.
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Originally published by The Hollywood Reporter as “Jafar Panahi Facing Five Years Imprisonment in Iran After Being Sentenced in Absentia”.