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Cannes 2025: Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident awarded the Palme d’Or by Juliette Binoche
The 2025 edition of the Cannes Film Festival crowns It Was Just an Accident, the political and subtle film by the courageous filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Here’s our view on the jury’s balanced and expected choices.
By Olivier Joyard.
On Saturday, May 24th, on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière, Jafar Panahi brandished the Palme d’Or he received for his eleventh feature film, It Was Just an Accident. The whole scene was a miracle in itself, since the Iranian director had been forbidden to leave his country for 14 years. Sentenced to six years in prison for “propaganda against the regime” in 2010, then placed under house arrest, the sexagenarian was arrested once again in 2022. He was only released in 2023 after a hunger and thirst strike. He has announced his intention to return to his home country.
A resilient artist and great filmmaker, Jafar Panahi was awarded the Palme d’Or by Juliette Binoche among twenty-two other feature films from around the globe. A “conscious” Palme as conflicts rage from Gaza to Ukraine. The rest of the winners’ list, which was both expected and fairly balanced, gave a pulse to the current state of cinema. The art form is still cherished in France, but increasingly threatened worldwide by political and financial censorship. So much so that the Cannes Film Festival once again fulfilled its role as a protective bubble. Here’s our view on the winners’ list through eight films.
Palme d’Or: It Was Just an Accident by Jafar Panahi
Last year, The Seed of the Sacred Fig by Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof was the favorite for the Palme d’Or before being edged out by Sean Baker’s surprise entry Anora. This time, Juliette Binoche, who is particularly attuned to the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, honored another Iranian director. Jafar Panahi embodies the resistance against the rule of the Mullahs in Tehran. His film It Was Just an Accident tells the story of how victims of torture by the regime find their torturer. They grapple with what to do with him, on the verge of suffering and absurdity. A nuanced reflection on revenge and trauma, with great political strength, and a consensual Palme d’Or.
It Was Just an Accident will be out in theaters on September 10th, 2025.
Grand Prix: Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier
The Norwegian director, known for Oslo, 31. august (2011), charmed festival goers with a sweeping, ambitious film. Drawing its inspiration from Chekhov and Bergman, Sentimental Value weaves a family drama where an aging patriarch, embodied by the stellar Stellan Skarsgård, strives to complete a new film, hoping his eldest daughter will play the lead role. Deeply literary and vibrant, Joachim Trier’s film masterfully blends creativity and familial bonds. A somewhat conservative choice, but certainly not a scandalous one.
Sentimental Value will be out in theaters on August 20th, 2025.
Best Actress: Nadia Melliti in The Little Sister by Hafsia Herzi
Jennifer Lawrence, the favorite, wasn’t invited to the party. The divine surprise of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival was Nadia Melliti. Discovered during a street casting in Paris, the lead actress in Hafsia Herzi’s third feature film portrays a high school senior, who is about to enter university as a philosophy student. Coming from an Algerian background, she explores her homosexuality while living in the suburbs and practicing Islam. Both reserved and subtly expressive, the 23-year-old actress is making her debuts and contributes greatly to the success of The Little Sister, an elegant adaptation of Fatima Daas’ autobiographical novel. This award also celebrates director Hafsia Herzi, whose organic and precise filmmaking deeply resonates in us.
The Little Sister will be out in theaters on October 1st, 2025.
Best Performance by an Actor: Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho
In The Secret Agent, one of the most impressive films in competition, Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, well-known for his role as Pablo Escobar in Narcos, portrays a former scientist trying to rebuild his life during the military dictatorship in Brazil in the 1970s. As the protagonist of this historical, political thriller and also sensual and contemporary fresco about oppressed people living in an unfair regime, Wagner Moura exudes casual charisma and depth. A cool star, just the way we like them.
The Secret Agent will be out on January 14th, 2026.
Best Screenplay: Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne for The Young Mother’s Home
After two Palmes d’Or (Rosetta, L’Enfant) and a Grand Prix (The Kid with a Bike), the brilliant Belgian filmmakers won their second Best Screenplay award after Lorna’s Silence. Their thirteenth feature, The Young Mother’s Home, follows teen mums and their newborns in a women’s shelter. Although the Dardenne brothers’ captivating direction is essential in their work, Juliette Binoche, Jeremy Strong, and the other members of the jury found a way to highlight this beautiful, generous, tense film, which premiered on the festival’s last day.
The Young Mother’s Home (2025) is currently out in theaters.
Best Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho for The Secret Agent
After Wagner Moura’s award for Best Actor in The Secret Agent, this second award underscores the jury’s love for this exploration of Brazil’s contradictions from the 1970s to the present day. Although it missed out on the Grand Prix and the Palme d’Or, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s double recognition cements his status as an main figure in cinema. Let’s hope for a box office success worthy of the film’s warmth and depth.
The Secret Agent will be out in theaters on January 14th, 2026.
Joint Jury Prize: Sirat by Oliver Laxe and Sound of Falling by Mascha Schilinski
By combining two unrelated films, the jury likely wanted to avoid making a choice and to highlight youth. German director Mascha Schilinski, the only one of the seven female directors in competition to win a prize, surprised the audience with Sound of Falling. Her 2-hour-40-minute feature film draws the impressionistic portrayal of women from the mid-20th century to today. Avoiding clichés of historical dramas, this stylized immersion into female experiences of oppression struck a chord.
It’s a pity that Sirat by the emerging Spanish director Oliver Laxe landed so “low” in the list. His film is an upfront powerful road movie through the rave culture, a metaphysical fresco influenced by Antonioni and Gus Van Sant that lifts us off the ground and powerfully captures the chaos of the world.
Sirat will be out in theaters on September 3rd, 2025. Sound of Falling is coming out soon.
Special Award: Resurrection by Bi Gan
Bi Gan was the first to go on stage to receive the least coveted award of the evening. But it is an award nonetheless! The 35-year-old Chinese filmmaker delivered a splendid film. The hero is a man who dreams in a world that no longer dreams. He journeys through the history of cinema and China. Both referential and poetic, this third feature from one of today’s greatest filmmakers was our favorite of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, along with Sirat by Oliver Laxe. Two cinematic gestures we would have liked to see win big, but which the jury wisely didn’t overlook
Resurrection (2025) is coming out soon.
Full winners’ list of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival
Palme d’Or
It Was Just an Accident by Jafar Panahi
Grand Prix
Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier
Best Performance by an Actress
Nadia Melliti in The Little Sister by Hafsia Herzi
Best Performance by an Actor
Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho
Best Screenplay
The Young Mother’s Home by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Best Director
Kleber Mendonça Filho for The Secret Agent
Joint Jury Prize
Sirat by Oliver Laxe and Sound of Falling by Mascha Schilinski
