Jafar Panahi
Award Name : Sakharov Prize
Year of Award : 2012
Award for : Human Rights
Location : Tehrān, Tehrān, Iran
Jafar Panahi (born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly identified with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved international recognition with his feature film debut, The White Balloon (1995). The film won the Caméra d'Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, the first major award won by an Iranian film at Cannes.He received the Sakharov Prize for the Freedom of Thought, received from the European Parliament in 2012.