Shortly after the Berlinale invited Jafar Panahi to be on this year's International Jury, he was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from filmmaking for the next 20 years. Ever since, people have been protesting worldwide against this verdict as it violates the right to freedom of opinion and expression in the arts.     The Berlin International Film Festival very strongly condemns the harsh sentences imposed on the distinguished Iranian director Jafar Pan...

  International reaction is building as news emerges from Iran that Jafar Panahi, one of that country's most internationally respected film artists, has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term. The Berlin International Film Festival is the first of many film institutions around the world to sharply condemn the harsh sentences handed down to the renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahi and his directing colleague Mohammed Rasulof. Accused of spreading “propaganda against the system”,...

Iran has sentenced two prominent filmmakers to six years in jail each on vague charges of working against the ruling system, their lawyers said Monday. One of the two, the renowned filmmaker Jafar Panahi, has won awards at the Chicago, Cannes and Berlin film festivals. His films have been screened at various film festivals in India. He was invited as chief guest at the recently concluded 41st international film fest in Goa (IFFI) but was not allowed to leave the country. Iran has ...

Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori), a special section of the upcoming 67th edition of the Venice Film Festival, will host the World Premiere of Iranian director Jafar Panahi's latest work, The Accordion. The film, produced by ART for The World as part of the new film project "THEN AND NOW, Beyond Borders and Differences" based on article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is a short film that stresses the rights of "freedom of thought, conscience an...

  Beginning of March, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi had been arrested by the police of his country. Over two months later, he's still in prison.   The International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI, a non-profit, apolitical organization consisting of members from 68 countries worldwide, strongly protests the arrest and unjust confinement of filmmaker Jafar Panahi. In the collective view of FIPRESCI, Panahi is not only an outstanding filmmaker - he has merited the FIPR...