Acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s film, It Was Just an Accident, is continuing its strong awards season run, earning two Oscar nominations.
The drama, about five Iranians who kidnap and confront a man they believe tortured them in jail, is nominated for Best International Feature, as well as Best Original Screenplay.
Another Iranian film, Cutting Through Rocks, about the first Iranian woman to be elected as councilwoman in a rural village, was nominated for Best Documentary Feature Film. It is the feature debut of directors Mohammadreza Eyni and Sara Khaki.
The Oscars will be held on March 15 in Los Angeles.
It Was Just an Accident, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last May, also earned three nominations at the Golden Globes on January 12. It won three Gotham Awards last year, taking home Best Director, Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay.
Panahi, 65, whose work has often fallen foul of the Iranian regime, was accused of spreading propaganda against the state and sentenced to a year in prison in December. The ruling was issued in his absence as Panahi was in New York receiving the Gotham Awards for It Was Just an Accident.
It was filmed in secret in Iran after the director spent seven months in prison. His sentence ended in 2023 after he went on a hunger strike. Panahi has not yet commented on his latest jail sentence and there was no indication of whether he planned to return to Iran.
He is among the most celebrated Iranian filmmakers and has continued making movies despite being jailed repeatedly, barred from travelling and placed under house arrest. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000 for The Circle and received the Golden Bear in Berlin for Taxi Tehran in 2015. He was awarded the Best Screenplay prize at Cannes in 2018 for Three Faces.
His Palme d'Or success for It Was Just an Accident made him one of the few filmmakers to have won the top prizes at Venice, Berlin and Cannes.
