Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi has called for reforms to Oscar submissions in the best international feature category that supports independent filmmakers in non-democratic countries.
Speaking at the Busan International Film Festival on Thursday, the auteur talked about the pressure filmmakers in Iran face when submitting their films to the Academy.
“We have a slight problem with the Academy and its international section,” said Panahi. “The Academy does not have a specific programme for us. When making films, we can send them to international festivals and don’t have the problem of getting an official permit from Iran. But when it comes to the Academy, we need to get permission from our own government.”
“I think the Academy should find a way to not tie the filmmakers to their governments,” he said. “All filmmakers who are independent must get together and find a way so that when they want to submit their films to the Academy, they don’t face this kind of problem with the government in their own country.”
“We have to submit the script to the Ministry of Guidance, who will say omit this line or add this part, or you cannot make this script. And if you don’t want to go through this process, then you go through a lot of problems.”
Panahi’s latest film, It Was Just An Accident is screening in Busan’s Gala Presentations section and has been announced by France as its entry for the best international feature category at the 98th Academy Awards.
The Persian-language film is a co-production with Paris-based producer Les Films Pelléas and distributed in France by Memento Distribution.
It Was Just An Accident premiered at the Cannes Film Festival In May this year and won the Palme d'Or. The thriller, which was inspired by Panahi’s time in prison, follows five formerly imprisoned Iranians who meet a man they suspect tortured them in prison and question whether to pursue vengeance.
Panahi has been arrested, detained, and questioned several times by the government over the years. In 2010, after his public show of support for mass protests after the contested presidential election, he was convicted of “propaganda against the state”, given a six‑year prison sentence, banned from filmmaking, and barred from international travel. He was released, but put on house arrest and barred from travelling outside Iran.
In July 2022 he was again detained when he visited the prosecutor’s office to inquire about fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad, who had been arrested. He was then put back into prison to serve his 2010 sentence in full, a move that was criticised internationally.
Panahi was finally released in February 2023 after going on a hunger strike, and his travel ban was lifted.
The director continued to make films despite the government directive banning him, and made the documentary feature This Is Not a Film in 2011, which premiered at Cannes, followed by the Berlinale Silver Bear winner Closed Curtain in 2013, Golden Bear winner Taxi in 2015, No Bears in 2022, and his latest, It Was Just An Accident.
Panahi’s statement follows a recent letter from the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association to the Academy, urging it to reconsider its ties with Iran’s state-run Farabi Cinema Foundation, which oversees Oscar submissions from the country.
Iran selected Ali Zarnegar’s Cause Of Death: Unknown as its submission to the Oscars this year, which premiered at the Shanghai Film Festival in 2023 and won the best cinematography prize. Panahi’s film is ineligible for Oscar nomination, since submission rules state that a film has to be released in its country of origin to be eligible, and the ban on Panahi’s films is still in effect.
Last year as well, Rasoulof’s Cannes-winning film The Seed of the Sacred Fig was not selected as Iran’s official Oscar entry and was submitted instead by Germany.
Appearances at film festivals for Iranian directors and actors sees a lot of persecution from the government, despite the country’s thriving film industry.
Last year, Rasoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison, flogging, a fine, and the confiscation of property for national security crimes .
Director Saeed Roustaee was sentenced to six months in prison for screening his film Leila’s Brothers at the Cannes film festival in 2022. Actor Taraneh Alidoosti, who played the lead, spent almost three weeks in jail over her support for the protests that broke out in Iran in 2022 over the death of Mahsa Amini in custody.
