Trivia

Arrested on March 1, 2010 at his home along with Mohammad Rasoulof and Mehdi Pourmoussa. Amongst detained were 15 others, including his wife and their daughter, but released 48 hours later. Panahi's arrest was confirmed by the government, but charges were not specified. Filmmakers Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Thomas Anderson, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Francis Ford Coppola, Jim Jarmusch, Ang Lee, Richard Linklater, Terrence Malick, Jonathan Demme, Curtis Hanson, Michael Moore, Paul Schrader, Ken Loach, Bertrand Tavernier, Agnès Varda, Frederick Wiseman, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Jon Jost, Walter Salles, Claude Lanzmann, Olivier Assayas, Romain Goupil, James Schamus, Amos Gitai, Patricio Guzmán, Danièle Thompson, Xavier Beauvois, Tony Gatlif, Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Kiumars Poorahmad, actors Robert De Niro, Robert Redford, Brian Cox, Pierre Richard and Mehdi Hashemi, actresses Isabelle Huppert, Anouk Aimée, Josiane Balasko, Fatemah Motamed-Aria and Golshifteh Farahani, film critics Roger Ebert, Amy Taubin, David Denby, Kenneth Turan, Todd McCarthy, Lisa Schwarzbaum, David Ansen, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Jean-Michel Frodon and Angelika Artyukh, Federation of European Film Directors, European Film Academy, Asia Pacific Screen Awards, NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema), Berlin International Film Festival's director Dieter Kosslick, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival's director Rutger Wolfson, Febiofest's program director Stefan Uhrik, FIPRESCI and Toronto Film Critics Association have called for his release. France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Culture and Communications Frédéric Mitterrand, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Canadian government, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have condemned the arrest. After more than a week in captivity in Ward 209 of the Evin Prison, Panahi was finally allowed to call his family. On March 17, 2010 Rasoulof and Pourmoussa were released. The next day, Panahi was allowed to have visitors, including his family and lawyer. On April 14, 2010, Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance said that Panahi was arrested because he "was making a film against the regime and it was about the events that followed the [2009] election." On May 25, 2010 Panahi was finally released on a $200,000 bail.

Symbolic guest of honor of Cannes Film Festival in 2010.

His two films, The Circle (2000) and Crimson Gold (2003) were banned by the Islamic government of Iran.

On December 20, 2010, Panahi was sentenced by the Revolutionary Court to six years in prison and barred for the next twenty years from film-making, political activity, traveling or giving interviews. Panahi's colleague Mohammad Rasoulof was also sentenced to six years in prison.

By winning the golden bear of Berlin Film festival for his film Taxi in 2015 Jafar Panahi became the only Iranian director who has win three major prizes of the four big main film festivals of Europe. He has win the golden lion of Venice for his film The Circle in 2000 and the golden leopard of Locarno film festival for The Mirror in 1997. He has not win only the Palm d'or of Cannes film festival which his fellow master Abbas Kiarostami did with his film Taste of Cherry in 1997.

In February 2010 he was denied permission to leave Iran to participate in the panel discussion on 'Iranian Cinema: Present and Future. Expectations inside and outside of Iran' during the World Cinema Fund Day at the 60th Berlinale.

Panahi is married to Tahereh Saidi, who he first met while he was in college when she was working as a nurse. Together they have a son, Panah Panahi, born in 1984 and a daughter, Solmaz Panahi. Panah Panahi attended the University of Tehran and in 2009 made his first short film, The First Film, which was screened at the 2009 Montreal World Film Festival. His daughter Solmaz studied theater in Tehran.

President of the Jury of the Montreal World Film Festival in 2009.

Member of the Jury of the Asia-Pacific Film Festival in 2007.

Member of the Jury of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2001, which also presented a retrospective of his films.

Father of Solmaz Panahi and Panah Panahi.