Iranian actress Laleh Marzban is facing threats and public attacks from Iranian authorities and state media after dedicating her Venice Film Festival acting prize to women in Iran.
Marzban received the award for best new actress at the film festival in Venice for her role in the film Moragheb. DR reports that her acceptance speech has since drawn condemnation from the government in Tehran.
On stage, Marzban dedicated the prize to women in her homeland who have paid the highest price for even the smallest measure of freedom. She also said Iranians are living through the hardest days of their lives, and urged them not to give up.
According to research into the ceremony, the award was handed out on Saturday, September 12, 2026, in the festival’s Orizzonti section. The film is also distributed under the English title Falling House.
Council calls speech one-sided
As reported by The Guardian, Iran’s Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution described her remarks as a one-sided depiction of what it called Iran’s proud society. The same statement said the speech reduced Iranian women to a Western stereotype.
Several Iranian state outlets have joined the criticism. On the state broadcaster Irib, Marzban has been called false, self-centered and hypocritical, per the same British newspaper.
The film trade publication Deadline reports that a television channel run by the Basij accused her of turning her back on her country. The Basij is a volunteer militia under the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Several Iranian media outlets have argued that the state should refuse to let the actress return home. Other outlets criticized her for not dedicating the prize to Iranian schoolchildren killed during the American attacks in February, DR notes.
Not the only filmmaker under pressure
Marzban is not the only figure from this year’s festival circuit facing action from her own government. DR notes that Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor have been threatened with losing their citizenship over a documentary about Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza.
Her award was one of several prizes handed out in Venice this month, where Danish and international titles also featured in the program. Coverage of the festival included the Oasis documentary premiere earlier in September.
Neither DR, The Guardian nor Deadline reports any formal decision by Iranian authorities to bar Marzban from the country. The reported threats so far come from state institutions and state-aligned broadcasters.
