Islamabad, 28 October, 2026 (Nosheen): Oscar-nominated Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been sentenced in absentia to five years and one month in prison by an Islamic Revolutionary Court in Iran, according to media reports. Panahi was outside Iran at the time, promoting his film It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and received an Oscar nomination in the Best International Feature category, representing France. According to his lawyer, Mostafa Nili, Panahi’s bank accounts were frozen last week. The filmmaker and his lawyer reportedly learned of the new ruling while visiting the Enforcement of Judgments unit at the Culture and Media Prosecutor’s Office, where they were informed that the sentence had been issued in absentia without prior legal notice. Panahi has faced repeated arrests and imprisonment in Iran. In 2020, he was sentenced to six years in prison and barred for 20 years from filmmaking, screenwriting and travelling abroad. He was arrested in July 2022 to serve the sentence and transferred to Evin Prison, but was released in February 2023 after seven months. In December 2025, he was also sentenced to one year in prison and faced additional punitive measures over allegations of “propaganda activity against the system.” The ruling was upheld by the Iranian Revolutionary Court following an appeal. Despite repeated clashes with Iranian authorities, Panahi has continued to make films that have earned international recognition. His works include The White Balloon, which won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes in 1995; The Circle, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000; and Taxi, which received the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015.