Dubai: A pro-reform newspaper reported on Monday that Iran has released an award-winning filmmaker who was detained more than six months ago for criticizing the government.

Mohammad Rasoulof is one of several well-known artists, athletes, and other celebrities who have been detained recently for speaking out against the government. His 2020 film, "There is No Evil," won the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

He was detained in July for objecting to the government's suppression of protests in the city of Abadan in the southwest following a fatal building collapse. Nationwide demonstrations started two months later after a 22-year-old woman passed away while being held by the country's morality police.

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Without giving dates or any other details, the Shargh newspaper, which is connected to the nation's reform movement, reported that Rasoulof had recently been granted a furlough from jail and had been formally released. Nothing official was said.

Famous filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was detained in July after inquiring about the detention of Rasoulof and another colleague, was freed by Iran earlier this month. Taraneh Alidoosti, an Iranian actress, was also released by the authorities after being detained for criticizing the suppression of the most recent protests.

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Iranians protested in the streets after Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman who was detained by the morality police for allegedly breaking the nation's strict Islamic dress code, died in September.

One of the biggest challenges the nation's ruling clerics have faced since taking power in the 1979 revolution was presented by the protests, which turned into demands for their removal.

Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that has closely followed the unrest, estimates that since those protests started, at least 529 protesters have died and nearly 20,000 have been detained. Official counts of those killed or detained by Iranian authorities have not been made public.

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The Golden Bear award was given to "There Is No Evil" at Berlin in 2020. It tells four stories that are tangentially related to the use of the death penalty in Iran. Due to an Iranian government travel ban, Rasoulof was unable to accept the award.