Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose film It Was Just an Accident received an Academy Award nomination this year, has been ordered to serve a one-year prison sentence after a Tehran court upheld his conviction for "propaganda against the Islamic Republic".
Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court of Tehran rejected an appeal against the sentence, according to Panahi's lawyer, Mostafa Nili. The ruling also includes a two-year ban on leaving the country and a prohibition on membership of political and social groups and organisations.
Nili said the conviction was the result of a number of activities cited by prosecutors, including making what authorities described as an unauthorised film against the regime, expressing support for political prisoners and activists, backing anti-government protests and endorsing the Women, Life, Freedom movement. The lawyer added that the ruling could be appealed to Tehran's Provincial Court of Appeal within 20 days.
The decision comes less than a year after Panahi won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for It Was Just an Accident, a political drama inspired in part by his own experiences of detention in Iran.
Accepting the award in Cannes last year, Panahi called for unity among Iranians despite political divisions.
"What's most important now is our country and the freedom of our country," he said. "Let us join forces."
Produced without official approval from Iranian authorities, It Was Just an Accident follows a group of former political prisoners who believe they have identified the official responsible for torturing them while in detention. The film became one of the most acclaimed releases of the year, winning the Palme d'Or before earning an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature.
Panahi, 65, has long been one of Iran's most celebrated filmmakers as well as one of its most prominent critics of censorship and political repression. His films, including The Circle, Offside, Taxi and No Bears, have won top prizes at major international film festivals despite repeated restrictions imposed on him by Iranian authorities.
Over the past two decades, Panahi has faced travel bans, periods of imprisonment and orders restricting his ability to make films. Many of his most acclaimed works were produced clandestinely and smuggled out of the country for international release.
His victory at Cannes placed him among a small group of filmmakers who have won the top prizes at Cannes, Berlin and Venice.
