Four Iranian directors are competing in the Academy Awards Best International Feature Film category this year, each representing a different country, with a shortlist of finalists due to be announced on March 2.
Iran submitted Cause of Death: Unknown by Ali Zarnegar after a selection process that excluded films by independent and dissident filmmakers.
Among those left out was the critics’ favorite It Was Just an Accident, secretly filmed by internationally acclaimed director Jafar Panahi, who is banned from filmmaking.
Panahi's drama was in turn submitted to the Oscars by France while fellow dissident filmmaker Alireza Khatami’s The Things You Kill will represent Canada.
Shahram Mokri’s Black Rabbit, White Rabbit has also been selected by Tajikistan.
Panahi’s film, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, was selected as France’s submission from a shortlist that also included Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague and Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life.
Oscars rules allow submissions in the category for productions "largely in the hands of citizens or residents of the submitting country."
The plethora of films by Iranian filmmakers has stoked some criticism, however, as LA Times columnist Glenn Whip wrote in an article titled, "The Oscars’ international feature category is broken. But there’s no easy fix".
"All this leads to a question raised annually: Isn’t there a better way to choose movies for the Oscars’ international feature category, one that sidesteps the politics of repressive regimes and produces a list of films that are the best the world has to offer?" he wrote.
The global presence of Iranian directors highlights both the richness of Iran’s cinema and the challenges artists face under domestic repression.
Earlier this month, an association of independent Iranian filmmakers called on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to overhaul how it accepts films from countries under authoritarian rule, warning that the current system legitimizes state-controlled cinema bodies.
In a letter to the Academy, the Iranian Independent Filmmakers Association (IIFMA) said the Farabi Cinema Foundation, which oversees Oscar submissions from Iran, enforces censorship and sidelines independent voices at home and abroad.
Many Iranian talents, facing censorship and restrictions at home, have fled abroad. Panahi remains in Iran under travel and work restrictions, but his French residence gives him the chance to participate in the Oscar submission process.
Mohammad Rasoulof, whose The Seed of the Sacred Fig was Germany's Oscars submission last year, was previously sentenced to prison and now lives and works in Germany.
While Iranian cinema has global reputation for its exploration of social themes, independent filmmakers operate under a system of strict censorship at home.
The government requires script approval and screening permits by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, punishing those who challenge political or social taboos with bans, imprisonment or exile.
Citing two senior Iranian officials involved in the negotiations and a US official with knowledge of the plans, the report said a US-chartered flight took off from Louisiana on Monday night and was scheduled to arrive in Iran via Qatar on Tuesday.
The deportees, including men and women -- some couples -- were either long in detention or had asylum requests denied, Iranian officials told the Times. Some had volunteered to leave after months in US custody, while others had not yet appeared before a judge.
The deportation marked one of the most direct efforts yet by the Trump administration to remove migrants even to countries with severe human rights conditions, the Times said.
The Times described the deportation as a rare moment of cooperation between Washington and Tehran, after months of negotiations.
Iranian officials said the country’s foreign ministry was coordinating the deportees’ return and that they had been assured of their safety. Still, they said, many were disappointed and some frightened.
Iran confirms 120 nationals deported
Later on Tuesday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that 120 Iranian migrants are being deported from the United States and will return home in the coming days, saying they will receive full consular support.
Hossein Noushabadi, the ministry’s parliamentary director, told Tasnim news agency that US immigration authorities had decided to expel about 400 Iranians, mostly those who entered the country illegally, “with the first 120 to be deported soon, most of them having crossed through Mexico.”
“Some of those now returning even had residency permits, but the US authorities decided to include them in the list,” he said. “Their consent for repatriation has been obtained.”
Noushabadi said Iran had lodged diplomatic notes via the US Interests Sections in Tehran and Washington, urging Washington to respect the rights of Iranian migrants.
“We asked the US government to ensure Iranian migrants are not deprived of consular services, fair trial rights, and protections under international law,” he said.
He stressed that Tehran would support returnees. “Iran will definitely host its nationals who migrated for any reason,” Noushabadi said. “These people are Iranians, they left Iran legally, and there is no obstacle to their return.”
He added that if other Iranians on the US list are deported, they will also be accepted, and that the first group will arrive via Qatar within one to two days.
Earlier this year, groups of Iranians, including converts to Christianity who face possible persecution at home, were flown to Costa Rica and Panama. Advocates have challenged the flights in court.
For decades, the United States has provided refuge to Iranians fleeing persecution, including women’s rights activists, dissidents, journalists, lawyers, religious minorities and members of the LGBTQ community.
The Times added that the US has historically struggled to carry out deportations to Iran due to a lack of diplomatic ties and travel documents, deporting only about two dozen Iranians in 2024.
“Iran is the homeland of all Iranians, and our compatriots can freely return to their homeland and travel,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said in February in response to earlier deportations, calling US treatment of migrants “harsh and inhumane.”
The deportations follow a broader crackdown. In June, Fox News reported that more than 130 Iranian nationals were arrested across the United States in a nationwide enforcement operation, citing federal sources.
Officials said those detained included individuals with suspected ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah, as well as people with criminal records for drugs, weapons, and domestic violence.
One former Iranian army sniper was arrested in Alabama, while another man in Minnesota admitted past ties to Hezbollah, Fox News said.
The deportation also comes amid Iran’s worsening domestic crisis, with the economy battered by inflation, currency depreciation, and power and water shortages. The reimposition of United Nations Security Council sanctions on Saturday is expected to intensify pressure.
