Imprison an Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi‘s”no bearsold out in North America, with Sideshow and Janus Films acquiring the US rights, and Films We Like buying the film for Canada.

“No Bears,” which premiered earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, depicts two parallel love stories. “In both cases, the lovers are troubled by hidden and unavoidable obstacles, the force of superstition and the mechanisms of power,” reads an official synopsis.

The film is written, produced and directed by Panahi and stars Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjei, Mina Kavani, Narjes Dalaram and Reza Heydari.

The picture won the Venice Special Jury Prize before appearing as a special presentation at the Toronto International Film Festival. It will then screen at this month’s New York Film Festival and the BFI London Film Festival.

Panahi was recently sentenced by Iranian authorities to serve a six-year sentence handed down to him in 2010, after he was arrested this year while protesting against the Iranian government.

Panahi had previously been sentenced to a six-year prison term and a 20-year ban on directing films, writing screenplays or giving any form of interview to Iranian or foreign media. He continued to make films despite government censorship attempts.

His recent feature films include ‘This Is Not a Film’, a special screening at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival; “Closed Curtain,” winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival; “Taxi”, winner of the Golden Bear at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival; and “3 faces”, winner of the best screenplay at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

Sideshow and Janus Films are planning a Best Director Oscar campaign for Panahi. The film, which is sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams, will receive a theatrical release.

Sideshow and Janus Films helped Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” — which premiered at Cannes in 2021 — to four Oscar nominations in total, including Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay. It was the first Japanese film ever nominated for Best Picture, and it grossed over $2.3 million in North America, while winning critics’ awards.

Celluloid Dreams President Hengameh Panahi said, “I have worked with Jafar since his debut, ‘The White Balloon’, which was the first significant North American release of an Iranian film and Jafar’s only film to be released in his own country due to his subsequent refusal to comply with censorship demands.

“His life is completely centered on cinema and he persists despite all the obstacles and limitations,” Hengameh Panahi continued. “Cinema is his inspiration and cinema his life. I am extremely happy to have found such a good home for “No Bears”, with distributors who care deeply and do such an amazing job. The film is a resolutely humanist response to an inhuman situation.

Sideshow’s Jonathan Sehring added: “Jafar Panahi is one of the greatest filmmakers in the world. He made a series of amazing stories with extremely limited means and under great restrictions. His films are deeply entertaining acts of political resistance and “No Bears” is his masterpiece. We are incredibly thrilled to bring this film to the world and to ensure that it is given serious consideration by the directors’ branch of the Academy.

The deal was brokered by Celluloid Dreams on behalf of the filmmakers with Sideshow and Janus Films.