Mehdi Mahmoudian, one of the film’s screenwriters It Was Just an Accidentwho is competing in two categories at the 2026 Oscars, was arrested in Tehran, Iran, on Saturday (31). He was detained alongside two other signatories of a letter criticizing actions by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Mahmoudian wrote the screenplay for It Was Just an Accident along with the film’s director, Jafar Panahi, and Nader Saïvar and Shadmehr Rastin. The film competes for the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and competes with the Brazilian The Secret Agent in the Best International Film category.
According to the magazine Varietythe letter denouncing the Iranian leader has 17 signatories, including Panahi. Last year, the filmmaker was sentenced to one year in prison in Iran for “propaganda activities” against the state. He and his colleagues denounce government brutality amid a wave of protests against the country’s religious leaders.
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“The mass and systematic murder of citizens who courageously took to the streets to put an end to an illegitimate regime constitutes an organized state crime against humanity. The use of live ammunition against civilians, the murder of tens of thousands, the arrest and persecution of tens of thousands more, the attack on the wounded, the obstruction of medical care and the murder of injured protesters amount to nothing less than an attack on Iran’s national security and a betrayal of the country,” reads part of the letter.
Panahi, who won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025 for It Was Just an Accidentreleased a statement in support of his colleague. He said that he met Mahmoudian when they were both political prisoners and, therefore, asked him to help him “refine” the dialogue in his film.
“Mehdi Mahmoudian is not just a human rights activist and a prisoner of conscience; he is a witness, a listener and a rare moral presence – a presence whose absence is immediately felt, both within prison walls and beyond,” the director wrote.
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It Was Just an Accident follows four ex-convicts of the Iranian regime who think they have identified their former torturer in a man. The film is showing in Brazilian cinemas.
