When the Iranian film "A Separation" won a Golden Globe award and garnered two Oscar nominations, Iran's film community hoped the government—which put the film up for awards—would embrace the accolades and give the industry some more breathing room.

Instead, filmmakers have come under greater pressure. Conservative media have trashed the movie as anti-Iranian for its portrayal of social-class differences and economic hardship. Iranian officials haven't congratulated Asghar Farhadi, the movie's author and director. Last month, Iran's Ministry of Culture closed the House of Cinema, a film-professionals guild that ran one of the country's last remaining independent venues for artistic gatherings.

The closure was part of a larger regime offensive against gatherings and organizations that could galvanize antigovernment sentiment, an effort that has intensified before parliamentary elections on March 2—five days after the Academy Awards ceremony.

The election is shaping up to be a contest among conservatives. Most politicians in Iran's so-called reformist parties who wanted to run for office, and even some conservatives who were openly critical of the government, were rejected by a government body that vets candidates' fitness for office. The main reformist parties and the opposition Green Movement have called for a boycott of the vote, saying the election process isn't democratic.

That has left the conservatives battling each other in the biggest round yet of what has become a bitter, public battle between Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.