Dissident Iranian filmmakers urge Oscars to reject state-linked submissions

The revenge drama, produced largely in France and shot in Iran without government approval, follows a group of former political prisoners confronting a man they believe tortured them decades earlier.

The decision, announced on Wednesday, was made by an 11-member committee convened by France’s culture ministry after reviewing five finalists, including Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life.

Panahi, long banned from working or traveling in Iran, has spent much of the past 15 years under house arrest or in prison. He was released from jail in 2023 after a hunger strike, and edited the new film in France.

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  France-Iran rift spills into cinema after dissident director wins in Cannes

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  Jafar Panahi’s Cannes victory sparks praise and political reaction

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  Mahsa Amini’s death sparked irreversible change in Iran, Jafar Panahi says

US distributor Neon has acquired the film and is planning an awards campaign, while Mubi has taken international rights.

“This Iranian drama, directed by the great Jafar Panahi and produced with the decisive support of France … is proof that our country, 130 years after inventing cinema, remains the beating heart of international co-productions,” Gaëtan Bruel, head of the CNC film body, said in a statement.

The move also highlights stark contrasts with Iran’s own Oscar choice. A day earlier, Tehran selected Ali Zarnegar’s Cause of Death: Unknown, a moral drama that won praise abroad but was pulled from Iran’s state-run Fajr Festival in 2022. Independent filmmakers in Iran continue to face censorship, surveillance and travel bans.

The 98th Academy Awards will take place in Los Angeles on March 15, 2026.

“The claim was that Afghan nationals were consuming so much bread that they were pushing prices higher. Yet even after more than 1.5 million have left, the price of Sangak [a popular traditional Iranian bread] has risen fourfold,” the paper said.

“Why should bread prices climb 300 percent compared to 2024 when no major shortage is expected?” the paper asked.

A loaf of subsidized Sangak bread cost 5,000 rials (about $0.05) in September 2024 but now sells for 200,000 rials (about $0.20), marking a 300-percent increase in one year.

Iran’s state news agency IRNA says that in Tehran Sangak priced at 100,000–150,000 rials has effectively disappeared; most customers now pay 200,000–500,000 rials per loaf, with sesame-topped bread commonly around 300,000 (about $0.30).

Official rates diverge from street prices, which vary by neighborhood and bakery. A government task force set a 600-gram sangak at 76,000 rials (about $0.07), but shoppers say loaves at that price are smaller and poorer quality.

Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni argued in August that expulsions reduced bread transactions by six percent, calling this a government achievement. Lower demand would help stabilize supply, he said.

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  Rampant inflation may ignite bread riots in Iran, economist warns

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  Iran sees steep bread price hikes as inflation bites

Deportations tied to security rhetoric

The Islamic Republic intensified deportations in recent months, especially after the 12-day war with Israel, when authorities accused some foreigners, notably Afghans, of working with Mossad. Such allegations have been used to justify expulsions while deflecting blame for economic hardship.

Decades of economic mismanagement, sanctions, and currency collapse have eroded household purchasing power, leaving low-income families most exposed.

“If inflation remains unchecked … Iran could witness a bread riot,” economist Hossein Raghfar told the moderate outlet Rouydad24 earlier this month, warning that inaction could have consequences far beyond the economy.

In an exclusive editorial for Iran International, Mohammadi said the slogan Woman, Life, Freedom which became the mantra of the protest movement ignited by her death carries forward a decades-old struggle for human rights in Iran.

"From the image of the Khavaran mother standing tall over an unmarked grave, to the embrace of Mahsa Jina Amini’s parents in a hospital corridor as they endured her final moments in pain and tears, countless scenes have been created that will remain eternal in the history of our nation’s quest for justice," Mohammadi said, referring to mass graves for dissidents executed in 1988.

"In the wasteland of injustice and oppression, justice-seeking is a lamp to light the way, a hope in the darkness of despair, and an effort to resist defeat and passivity," Mohammadi wrote.

She traced a continuous line of activism from executions since the Islamic Republic's earliest days and the so-called chain murders of intellectuals inside Iran in the nineties to student protests, the Green Movement, 2017 and 2019 demonstrations and most recently the Women, Life, Freedom movement.

"Our society, in its pursuit of justice and its struggle to expose oppression and discrimination so that history cannot erase them, stands among the greatest in the world,” Mohammadi said.

Iran’s human rights situation remains dire according to watchdogs, with widespread state surveillance, arbitrary arrests and harsh crackdowns on political activists, journalists and women’s rights defenders.

Ethnic and religious minorities face systemic discrimination, international and Iran-focused rights groups say, and the ruling system continues to suppress protests and civil society movements with imprisonment, torture and executions.

Read the full text: Focus on Society and Justice, by Narges Mohammadi

In response to Iran International query asking viewers what had changed since her death and the igniting of the Woman, Life, Freedom protest movement, most said life had become ever harder.

“Every day people fall deeper into ruin: more penniless, more unemployed, more hungry. There’s no water, power, or gas in places. Killings and violence have increased,” another message said.

Many Iranians are grappling with shortages of water and electricity and cited the mounting toll of high inflation and broader economic strain.

Sanctions, corruption and mismanagement have plagued Iran's economy for decades.

The wave of civil disobedience especially among women and girls continues subtly across Iran and has even spread to many traditionally religious cities.

“We’re in Mashhad. Even though it’s a religious city, many women come out with freer dress. I used to wear the chador, but since Mahsa I no longer wear hijab. Men have also changed. They’re united with the women,” one respondent said.

Other messages confirm that civil disobedience over dress codes and open defiance of Islamic regulations is widespread across the country.

“Women this year gained a little more freedom in dress. Men wear shorts and tank tops in public now. The government is failing on the hijab issue, but a woman still cannot claim her rights even in a court. Child laborers and people sleeping in cardboard boxes remain — poverty is rampant,” a caller said.

Patchy enforcement

A harsh new sanctions and chastity bill passed by the hardliner-dominated parliament was frozen by Iran's top security body this year in an apparent bid by the theocracy to forestall further unrest.

Some messages suggested that in affluent areas, obedience to the Islamic dress code has collapsed almost entirely, but that the trend was far from universal.

“The Mahsa movement caused the costly system of forced hijab to crumble. But in practice nothing changed, it got worse," in person said.

"A few women walking unveiled in the streets only benefits the wealthy; it does nothing for the millions who are starving. In fact, those who were killed and injured suffered the most. There’s no benefit for the poor.”

Beyond shortages of water and electricity, callers pointed to critical deficits in health and food supplies.

There are reports of shortages of essential medicines including treatments for rare diseases, cancer and chronic illnesses, as well as a scarcity of powdered milk and infant formula.

Rising food inflation has placed basic staples out of reach for many families. Still, messages of hope and a desire for change are widespread.

“Life has become much harder financially, socially and psychologically," one respondent said, "but we feel that a small spark, one small spark could become the final ax to tear down this tree of oppression."

From the earliest days after the death of Mahsa Amini in morality police custody three years ago, family memorials and funerals became focal points for renewed protest.

Victims' kin insist that remembrance itself is a form of resistance, and safeguarding the right to mourn is central to winning truth and justice.

In Iran, funerals and anniversaries have long been potent political tools. They gather people across social and geographic divides, create moments of public memory and sustain narratives of grievance and solidarity.

The 2022–23 protests frequently reignited during burials and 40-day mourning periods. Since then, authorities have continued to dismantle these anniversary rituals through arrests, intimidation, legal harassment and tight security controls at cemeteries where the victims are buried.

Families who refuse to forget

Despite these pressures, families persist. They gather at cemeteries, share photos and videos on social media, and hold private ceremonies to honor their loved ones. Many celebrate birthdays and New Year holidays at graves, bringing cakes, flowers, and posting images online as quiet acts of resistance.

Like previous years, Mahsa Amini’s father, Amjad Amini, published a defiant message on September 14 in remembrance of his daughter on Instagram.

“The memory and demand for justice for Mahsa and the other slain protesters will never be forgotten,” he wrote.

Menaced for mourning

The case of Mashallah Karami demonstrates the lengths to which the state will go to scotch remembrances. His son, Mohammad-Mehdi Karami, along with co-defendant Mohammad Hosseini, was executed in January 2023 for alleged involvement in the death of a Basij militia member in Karaj in central Iran. They denied the charges.

Karami’s father, a street vendor who campaigned relentlessly for his son and Hosseini, was arrested in August 2023 during a security raid. Authorities froze the family’s bank accounts and repeatedly destroyed plaques commemorating the men.

He now serves an eight-year and ten months sentence in prison on fabricated charges of money laundering and obtaining property through illegitimate means, on top of fines and asset confiscations. His appeals for a retrial were rejected by the Supreme Court this month.

Similarly, Mohammad Javad Zahedi, 20, from Sari in northern Iran, was shot dead in September 2022 while on his way to a pharmacy, his body showing close to a hundred pellet wounds.

His mother, Mahsa Yazdani, launched a social media campaign demanding justice but was arrested ahead of the first anniversary of his death.

She was sentenced to 13 years in prison, including a mandatory five-year term, on charges of insulting sacred values and inciting people to disrupt national security, insulting the Supreme Leader and propaganda against the system.

Her sentence was later commuted to home detention with an electronic ankle bracelet, and she was finally released in March after serving two years.

Lawyers in the dock

Legal defenders of these families have also faced persecution.

Saleh Nikbakht, winner of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize in 2023, who represented Mahsa Amini’s family, was sentenced to one year in prison for interviews with Persian-language media outside Iran and cooperation with hostile states.

Another lawyer, Khosrow Alikordi, was likewise sentenced to one year in prison for propaganda in favor of opposition groups. He represented the prosecuted members of Abolfazl Adinehzadeh’s family.

Adinehzadeh, a seventeen-year-old student, was shot with over 70 pellets in Mashhad during the protests.

Several of his family members, including his father and sister were charged with propaganda against the system. They had been detained at his gravesite on the first anniversary of his death.