Jafar Panahi won this year’s Palme d’Or!
The 64-year-old Iranian filmmaker received the highest honor of the Cannes Film Festival for his drama movie, It Was Just an Accident, which was inspired by his six-year-long imprisonment and even longer conflict with the Iranian government.
He was arrested back in March 2010 being charged with propaganda against the Iranian government, but fast forward to 2025, he accepted the Palme d’Or and stated, “Let’s put all the problems, all the differences aside; the most important thing right now is our country and our country’s freedom.”
“Let’s reach that moment together when no one dares to tell us what we should completely include, what we should say, what we shouldn’t do … Cinema is a society. No one has the right to tell us what you should do, what you shouldn’t do,” Panahi added.
Meanwhile, the jury president, Juliette Binoche, praised It Was Just an Accident, stating that the film “really stood out”.
“It’s very human and political at the same time because he comes from a complicated country, politically speaking … The film springs from a feeling of resistance, survival, which is absolutely necessary today. So we thought it was important to give this film the paramount award,” she said of Jafar Panahi’s movie.
