Fallowing researching film directing at a College of Cinema & Television inside Tehran, Panahi made many films for Iranian television & was a adjunct director of Abbas Kiarostami's film Through The Olive Trees.

Panahi's debut as a director come inside 1995 with White Balloon, which won a Camera d'Or even at a Cannes Film Festival. A 1997 film The Mirror, also directed by Panahi, received a Golden Leopard Award at a Locarno Festival. His virtually all notable offering up to now has been The Circle (2000), which criticized the professional assistance of women under Iran's Islamist regime. Panahi too directed Crimson Gold in 2003.