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Iran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced Palme d’Or-winning director Jafar Panahi to five years in prison and ordered the seizure of all his assets, the semi-official Nournews news agency reported Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The report did not specify the charges Panahi faces. The court also banned the filmmaker from leaving the country for two years and from all social media activity, according to the report.
Panahi won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival with “It Was Just an Accident.” Last year, he was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison on charges of propaganda activities against the government. He returned to Iran in March.
Panahi’s lawyer, Mostafa Nili, said Branch 26 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court issued a five-year, one-month sentence. He said the court handed it down in absentia and that Panahi had not been notified of a hearing date.
Nili said he learned of the case after authorities froze Panahi’s bank accounts last week.
The court rejected a request in June to retry the earlier one-year sentence, upholding the original verdict, according to reports.
In 2010, Iranian authorities banned Panahi from filmmaking, giving interviews, and traveling for 20 years.
He continued to make films in secret. Authorities arrested him in July 2022 and released him in February 2023 after a hunger strike.
“It Was Just an Accident” was filmed in secret in Iran. It was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Academy Awards.
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