Palme d’Or winner Jafar Panahi on ‘It Was Just an Accident’ and returning to Iran under legal threat
The Business
KCRW
4.5 • 699 Ratings
🗓️ 13 February 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Kim Masters sits down with Academy Award nominated Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi to discuss his Palme d’Or winning film It Was Just an Accident. Panahi explains why he self finances his films, bringing in partners only after he decides the work is worthy of his signature, and how he has continued to shoot in secret despite years of arrests, censorship, and government bans. He also reflects on his decision to return to Iran after the awards season, even as he faces the possibility of another prison sentence.
Plus, Masters and Matt Belloni dig into the latest twists in the Warner Bros. sale, including Paramount’s new concessions aimed at winning over regulators and shareholders. They weigh the limits of President Trump’s influence over the deal, and how a major investor group’s shifting position could reshape the bidding landscape and spark further legal battles.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From KCRW, I'm Kim Masters, and this is the business. |
| 0:06.0 | Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi is an artist and a man of courage. He spent decades making |
| 0:11.7 | movies in his country in defiance of the regime. Even now, as he's on the Oscar circuit |
| 0:16.9 | with his Palm Door winning film, it was just an accident. He's been sentenced to prison |
| 0:21.3 | once again, this time in absentia. I asked him what message he has for Americans confronting |
| 0:26.7 | unpopular policies in this country. The mistake we made in Iran is that we did not take the |
| 0:35.4 | signs seriously. So if something small happened, for instance, |
| 0:39.7 | one person got killed, two people got killed, |
| 0:42.7 | no one thought that it's going to escalate |
| 0:45.6 | and one day get into 30,000, 40,000 people killed. |
| 0:49.9 | Panahi talks about shooting his films in secret |
| 0:52.5 | and why he'll return to Iran despite the prospect of another prison sentence. |
| 0:57.4 | He also explains why he initially shoots his films with his own money before inviting producers into the process. |
| 1:03.9 | But first we banter. Stick around. It's the business from KCRW. |
| 1:09.8 | I am joined by my colleague in banter, Matt Bellany. |
| 1:12.8 | Hello, Matt. |
| 1:13.4 | Hi there. |
| 1:14.5 | So where to begin this week? |
| 1:16.8 | I feel a little bad, but going back to the Warner Brothers sale, but every week there is |
| 1:23.2 | something. |
| 1:23.9 | And other than the Disney changing of the guard, this is the biggest story in town. |
| 1:29.0 | So what has happened most recently is that, first of all, the Ellison's came up with a sweetener. |
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