Imprisoned Jafar Panahi to win Carrosse d’ Or at Cannes

The jailed Iranian director Jafar Panahi is to win the Carrosse d'Or at this year's Cannes film festival.Panahi, who won the Camera d'Or at Cannes in 1995 for The White Balloon, was convicted of making propaganda against the ruling regime in Iran last December. He was jailed for six years and banned from directing films for 20 years. A prominent supporter of the protests that followed Iran's disputed presidential election in 2009, Panahi was arrested for joining in mourning for demonstrators killed in July that year. He was subsequently released but barred from leaving Iran. In February 2010 he was arrested along with his family and colleagues and taken to Tehran's Evin prison. He was released on bail three months later after starting a hunger strike, but was later convicted of the propaganda offence.Cannes will keep a seat empty in the middle of the orchestra at the Croisette theatre, the screening venue for the festival's Directors' Fortnight.