Jafar Panahi To Be Honored At This Year’s Cannes Film Festival

It may not be a much needed statement of release for the filmmaker, but jailed Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi is about to get yet another sign of solidarity from his contemporaries within the film world.

The Cannes Film Festival has revealed that Panahi will be receiving the Carrosse d’Or (the Golden Coach) at this year’s festival, which kick stars   next month, THR is reporting.

The event will kick off the Director’s Fortnight sidebar, and is yet another instance of solidarity being shown to the unjustly jailed filmmaker, joining such things as honorary spots on the Berlinale jury earlier this year, and various petitions signed by names like Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.

Now, while it may not seem like much, the worst thing that could happen with this story is that it would ultimately leave the headlines.   It’s already something that doesn’t make its way into the public consciousness nearly as enough as it should, so if it takes things like this to get his name, and his horribly unjust situation, back into the public’s eye, it should happen.   Panahi, who was sentenced to six years in prison and twenty years banned from making films in his native Iran, needs support, and I can’t think of a better stage for it to be shown.

Source: THR