Jafar Panahi (born July 11, 1960 in Mianeh, Iran ) is an internationally-acclaimed independent filmmaker.

After studying film directing at the College of Cinema and Television in Tehran, Panahi made several films for Iranian television and was the assistant director of Abbas Kiarostami's film Through The Olive Trees .

Panahi's debut as a director came in 1995 with White Balloon , which won a Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The 1997 film The Mirror, also directed by Panahi, received the Golden Leopard Award at the Locarno Festival. His most notable offering to date has been The Circle (2000), which criticized the treatment of women under Iran's Islamist regime. Panahi also directed Crimson Gold in 2003.