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As I write, the final touches are probably being added in preparation of the Academy Award ceremony and, while cinema fans are rooting for this or that movie and director and fashionistas can’t wait to see what will go on in terms of red carpet trends, worrying news are arriving from Iran about Jafar Panahi.

The director, his wife and daughter, as well as 15 of their guests – among them actors and directors, probably also directors Mahnaz Mohammadi and Mohammad Rasoulof – were indeed arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.

The winner of the 2000 Golden Lion in Venice for his film Dayereh (The Circle) and the Silver Bear at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival for Offside, Panahi often tackled in his work important topics such as the conditions Iranian women live in and the contrasts between the poor and the rich.

The director, an opponent of President Ahmadinejad, was arrested because he didn’t have the permit to film in the streets of Teheran his new documentary that focuses on the protests that followed the results of last June’s elections. It was Panahi’s son who broke the news about his father’s arrest on reformist internet newspaper Rahe Sabz (that also has its own Twitter page).

Panahi was already arrested with his wife and daughter in July when they took part in a demo in memory of Neda Aqa-Soltan, the young woman killed last June during the post-election protests. They were released soon after, but the director was not allowed to leave the country and take part to the recent Mumbai and Berlin film festivals.