The start of Hollywood's awards season has been marked by highs and lows for Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.

On Monday night, the writer and director was present when his film It Was Just an Accident won big at New York's Gotham Awards, which celebrate independent movies. Hours earlier, his lawyer shared that Panahi was sentenced in absentia to a year in prison in Iran.

According to his lawyer, Mostafa Nili, who posted about the sentence on X and shared the news with Agence France-Presse , the sentence also includes a two-year ban on travel from Iran and a prohibition of any association with political groups, on charges of "propaganda activities against the system." Nili added that Panahi's legal team plans to appeal the ruling.

Last month, Panahi toured the U.S. for the first t

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