Jafar Panahi has won big at the 35th annual Gotham Awards, hours after he was sentenced in absentia in Iran to one year in prison and a travel ban.
The charges against the Iranian filmmaker were that he had engaged in “propaganda activities” against the nation.
Panahi won three awards for his film It Was Just an Accident.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who won the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2025 for It Was Just an Accident, has been sentenced to one year in prison in Iran in absentia, according to his lawyer.
Just hours after Iran sentenced the dissident filmmaker, he received three major awards at the 35th annual Gotham Awards. He won best director, best original screenplay and best international film for the revenge drama.
“This award belongs to all people who worked for me on this film,” Panahi said onstage through an interpreter, according to Deadline. “I’d like to dedicate this award to independent filmmakers around the world. … I hope that this dedication will be considered a small tribute to all filmmakers who have been deprived of the right to see and to be seen but continue to create and to exist.”
Later, he came onstage to receive the Gotham for Best International Feature and returned to accept the award for Best Director.
It Was Just an Accident is France’s entry for the International Feature at the 2026 Oscars.
Jafar Panahi's imprisonment
Mostafa Nili, Panahi’s lawyer, said that Panahi has been sentenced in absentia by Iran to a year in prison and a travel ban due to "propaganda activities" against the nation. The 65-year-old filmmaker is also prohibited from membership in any political or social groups.
Nili said that they would file an appeal.
Panahi was jailed for months before making It Was Just an Accident and was released in February 2023 after going on a hunger strike. In 2010, he was banned from filmmaking and leaving Iran. He continued to create films without the government’s permission.
