Overview
- Accepting the National Board of Review’s best international film prize, Panahi called on artists and governments to speak out and pressure Iran’s leaders.
- He described phone and internet shutdowns across Iran and said the blackout points to large‑scale killings as security forces confront nationwide protests.
- Casualty tallies remain hard to verify, with wire services reporting hundreds dead and other accounts claiming thousands, as arrests also mount under the blackout.
- The Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association reported that actor Ahmad Abbasi and filmmaker Javad Ganji were shot and killed at Tehran protests on January 9.
- Panahi, recently sentenced in absentia to a year in prison with a reported travel ban, says he will return to Iran after his film campaign; his Palme d’Or winner was shot in secret and smuggled out for editing.