Jafar Panahi, director of the highly acclaimed Iranian film “It Was Just an Accident,” was prevented from entering the U.S. when his visa could not be processed in time for the New York Film Festival. Amid a government shutdown, Panahi was forced to miss both an Oct. 2 screening of his film at the NYC festival and an Oct. 3 conversation with Martin Scorsese.
Panahi’s visa troubles came a day after the U.S. government shut down when Congress failed to pass a federal budget for the 2026 fiscal year. New York Film Festival told ticket holders Thursday that Panahi would not be in attendance for the New York premiere or conversation.
Panahi made headlines with “It Was Just an Accident” soon after its premiere at Cannes Film Festival, winning both the Palme d’Or and the Prix de la Citoyenneté Citizenship Prize. The film quickly became one of the most acclaimed releases of 2025, becoming the French selection for Best International Feature at the 2026 Academy Awards.
The making of “It Was Just an Accident” came at great personal risk for Panahi, who filmed the feature in secret in his home country of Iran. Filming without a permit, the movie features a number of a number of actresses not wearing a hijab — thus going against Iran’s hijab law. Panahi has faced several years in prison for his filmmaking in the past.
It’s a story not dissimilar to Mohammad Rasoulof, another Iranian writer/director who filmed 2024’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” in secret. One part political commentary, one part family drama and one part horror movie, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” caused Rasoulof to flee to Germany in secret with members of his cast and crew to avoid imprisonment. Germany selected the film as their representative for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards, with the movie eventually becoming one of 2025’s five nominees.
Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani, who directed the animated short film “In the Shadow of the Cypress,” had their own visa issues at the 2025 Academy Awards. The directors/spouses were nearly unable to attend the Oscars due to difficulties in obtaining their visas. The couple cited financial difficulties and sanctions that they faced in the six-year process of completing their self-financed film, saying that travel only became more difficult under Donald Trump’s second term in office. The pair arrived in Los Angeles only hours before the Academy Awards — where they won Best Animated Short Film.
“It Was Just an Accident” will be released in the United States by Neon on Oct. 15.
