Cannes attributes to Palme d’Or the drama of Iranian revenge “It was just an accident”

Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the golden palm Cannes Film Festival Saturday for his revenge thriller “It was just an accident”, Put the festival’s first prize to a director who had been forbidden to leave Iran for over 15 years.

Cate Blanchett gave the price to Panahi, who three years ago was imprisoned in Iran before making a hunger strike. For a decade and a half, he made films clandestinely in his native country, including a film (“It’s not a film”) made in his living room and another (“taxi”) taking place in a car.

The crowd stood up in a thunderous standing ovation for the filmmaker, who immediately threw his arms and leaned back into his seat with disbelief before applauding his collaborators and the public around him. On stage, Panahi was applauded by The president of the Cannes jury, Juliette Binoche, Who in 2010 in Cannes organized the name of Panahi to honor the director when he was under house arrest.

On stage, Panahi said that what mattered most was freedom in his country.

“Let’s go from the forces,” said Panahi. “No one should dare to tell us what type of clothes we should wear, what we have to do or what we should not do. Cinema is a company. No one has the right to say what we should or refrain from doing. “

The victory of “It was only an accident” extended an unprecedented sequence: the independent distributor Neon has now supported the last six winners of Palme d’Or. The last triumph for neon, which acquired “it was just an accident” for the North American distribution after its first in Cannes, follows its palms to “Parasite,” “Titanium”, “triangle of sadness”, “anatomy of a fall” and “Anora.”

All these films were pretenders to the Oscars and two, “Parasite” and “Anora”, won the best film.

Last year, filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran To attend the first of his film in Cannes and Resettle in Germany. Panahi, however, said that unlike his friend Rasoulof, life in exile is not for him. He planned to return home to Tehran on Sunday.

“It was only an accident” was inspired by Panahi’s experience in prison. In the film, a group of former prisoners meets the man who terrorized them in prison and weighs whether to kill him or not.

sewer was imprisoned in the prison of Evin de Tehran After going there to find out about the Rasoulof then. Panahi was released in 2023 After making a hunger strike.

In 2009, it was forbidden to travel outside Iran after attending the funeral of a student killed during the demonstrations of the Green Movement. During these years, Panahi has continued to illegally make films in Iran, without a license, and put his films to festivals on USB discs. His travel ban was lifted after his release in 2023.

“The film springs from a feeling of resistance, of survival, which is absolutely necessary today,” Binoche told journalists after the ceremony. “Art will always win. What is human will always win. “

The CANNES fence ceremony followed A large power failure This struck the south-eastern France on Saturday in what the police suspected a criminal fire. Only a few hours before the stars start to flow on the red carpet, the power was restored in Cannes.

“A day without electricity,” sighed John C. Reilly, who sang an “pink life” of English language during the ceremony. The festival films, he said, provided “all the necessary electricity”.

Other winners at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival

The Grand Prix, or second prize, was awarded to the Norwegian family drama of Joachim Trier “Sentimental value”, “ His follow -up praised “the worst person in the world”. Some expected the “sentimental value” to win the palm, but sort – whose film finds it with the actor Renate Reinsve – has always won a major prize.

“We live in a time of enormous excesses and saturation of images. Moved images are thrown to us all the time,” said sorting. “And I want to pay tribute to the Cannes Film Festival to be a place where the big cinematographic image, which is the foundation of the moving image, the free image, the image that we take the time to look, the image where we can identify each other at that time.”

Kleber Mendonça Brazilian political thriller “The Secret Agent” won two Grands Prix: Filho’s best director and the best actor of Wagner Moura. Although Cannes juries are generally invited to broadcast prices, the two for “the secret agent” showed the strong feelings of the jury for this. Asked about the two prizes, Juré Jeremy Strong explained, simply, “it was our wish.”

The victories, which followed the international victory of the film Oscar for “I’m Still here” by Walter Salles in March, gave Brazil more to celebrate. On X, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, said the prices “show that our country’s cinema is unparalleled.”

The jury prize was divided between two films: Trime of the road to the desert of óliver laxes “sirât “And the German Drama of Mascha Schilinski,” Sound of Falling “by Mascha Schilinski. The best actress went to Nadia Melliti for” The Little Sister “, the French drama of Hafsia Herzi.

The Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, who are twice winners of Palme d’Or, won the best scenario for their last drama, “Young Mothers”. It is their ninth prize in Cannes. The prize for the best film festival, the Golden Camera, went to Hasan Hadi for “The President’s Cake”, making it the first Iraqi film to win a prize at the festival.

What have the others shaped Cannes this year

The ceremony on Saturday put an end a 78th Cannes Festival where geopolitics threw a long shadow, both on the screen and on the extinguished. Shortly before the Riviera French Extravaganza, which is also the largest cinema market in the world, American president Donald Trump launched the idea of ​​a 100% price on films made abroad.

Most of the filmmakers responded with an uptop, calling the illogical plan. “Can you keep the film in customs? It doesn’t send it that way,” said Wes Anderson, who created his last one, “The Phoenician regime” at the festival. During the opening ceremony, the honorary recipient Palme d’Or, Robert de Niro, described Trump as “American Philistine President”.

Other best American movies in Cannes included “The lowest high of Spike Lee” by Spike Lee (which removed Lee from his New York Knicks but not from their blue and orange color), the cruise action Christopher Mcquarrie-Tom “Mission: Impossible – final reminder”, “ And Ari Aster “Eddington”, “ which found a division reaction.

Panahi’s victory put it in a rare company. He has now won the golden palm of Cannes, the Golden Lion of Venice (for “The Circle”) and the Berlin Golden Bear (for “Taxi”). Only three other filmmakers have done so: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Altman.

Addressing journalists after his victory, Panahi spoke of filmmakers and artists who could always find a means, “even in complicated situations”.

“They must realize that no power in place can stop these people on their traces,” said Panahi. “You have this power.”

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Jake Coyle has covered the Cannes Film Festival since 2012. He saw around 40 films at the this year festival and is Report on what stands out.

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For more coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival