Dissident Iranian filmmaker wins Palme d’Or for prison-inspired satire
Banned from making films and jailed for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” Jafar Panahi drew on his time in Tehran’s Evin Prison for It Was Just an Accident — a darkly comic tale that has taken top honours at Cannes.
Not even a suspected act of sabotage — a power cut that plunged Cannes and much of the French Riviera into darkness on the final morning — could stop the festival from handing its top prize to a filmmaker banned from filmmaking.
The dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his drama It Was Just an Accident, a bleakly comic swipe at the regime that has repeatedly tried to silence him.
It Was Just an Accident is the first film Panahi, 64, has made since being released from prison in 2023. Convicted of “propaganda against the Islamic Republic”, he was officially banned from making movies — a restriction he continued to defy.
It Was Just an Accident follows a group of men and women who band together after one of them kidnaps a man they believe tortured them in prison. Panahi, who has been imprisoned several times — most recently around the time his last film, No Bears, debuted at Venice in 2022 — drew inspiration from stories he heard from fellow inmates while at Evin Prison in Tehran.
A teary Cate Blanchett, who has just launched a new grant for displaced filmmakers, presented Panahi with the Palme. “I applaud the festival’s understanding that cinema creates openings for wider social conversations to take place,” she said. “Here, these dialogues are encouraged to take root where otherwise they risk being hijacked by the self-serving world of national and personal political ambition.”
In his speech, Panahi urged Iranians to “set aside our differences. The important thing now is the freedom of our country, so that no one would dare to tell us what to wear or what film to make.”
The Palme d’Or was decided by a nine-person jury led by the French star Juliette Binoche, presiding over actor Halle Berry, Alba Rohrwacher, Jeremy Strong, author Leïla Slimani, and filmmakers Dieudo Hamadi, Payal Kapadia, Carlos Reygadas and Hong Sangsoo.
The Grand Prix — effectively the silver medal — was presented by The Substance director Coralie Fargeat, and went to Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s family drama and follow-up to The Worst Person in the World.
The Jury Prize was split between two very different entries: Sirât, from French-Spanish auteur Oliver Laxe, which follows a grieving father’s psychedelic desert odyssey in search of his missing daughter; and Sound of Falling, an intergenerational ghost story from German director Mascha Schilinski, set over a century in the same rural family home.
The Best Actor award, presented by Pedro Almodovar’s long-time muse Rossy de Palma, went to Wagner Moura, star of The Secret Agent, a Brazilian political thriller set during the country’s 1970s dictatorship. The film’s director, Kleber Mendonça Filho, also won Best Director.
French stalwart Daniel Auteuil presented the Best Actress prize to newcomer Nadia Melliti for her performance in The Little Sister, Hafsia Herzi’s drama about a queer Muslim teenager navigating faith and sexuality.
Resurrection, a Chinese epic directed by Bi Gan, won the Prix Spécial, while Best Screenplay went to the Belgian filmmaking brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for Young Mothers, a drama about teenage mums.
Another headline-grabber of this year’s festival was the presence of three directorial debuts by marquee actors: The Chronology of Water, an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir of abuse, directed by Twilight star Kristen Stewart; Eleanor the Great, directed by Scarlett Johansson, about an American woman in her nineties pretending to be a Holocaust survivor; and Urchin, a drama about a homeless man, directed by Harris Dickinson, the 28-year-old star of last year’s Nicole Kidman-led hit Babygirl — which notched its star, Frank Dillane, a performance award.
Cannes film festival 2025 winners: the full list
Feature films
Palme d’Or
It Was Just an Accident, directed by Jafar Panahi
Grand Prix
Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier
Jury Prize
Sirât, directed by Oliver Laxe
and Sound of Falling, directed by Mascha Salinski
Best director
Kleber Medonça Filho, The Secret Agent
Special award
Resurrection, directed by Bi Gan
Best performance by an actor
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Best performance by an actress
Nadia Melliti, The Little Sister
Best screenplay
Young Mothers, directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Un Certain Regard prize
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, directed by Diego Céspedes
Jury prize
A Poet, directed by Simón Mesa Soto
Best director
Once Upon a Time in Gaza, directed by Tarzan and Arab Nasser
Performance Awards
Cleo Diara, I Only Rest in the Storm
Frank Dillane, Urchin
Best Screenplay
Pillion directed by Harry Lighton
Special Mention
Norah directed by Tawfik Alzaidi
Short Film Palme d’Or
I’m Glad You’re Dead Now directed by Tawfeek Barhom
Short Film Special Mention
Ali directed by Adnan Al Rajeev
Camera d’Or
The President’s Cake directed by Hasan Hadi
Honorary Palme d’Or
Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington