Moment of triumph: Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi honoured with Cannes' topmost prize for 'It Was Just An Accident'

Persecuted Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, known for films such as The White Balloon, Taxi, and The Circle, had his triumphant moment at Cannes 2025 when he was awarded the event's topmost prize, the prestigious Palme d'Or, for his film It Was Just An Accident.

Panahi, who was banned from filmmaking and imprisoned by his own country in the recent past, has seemingly made, through the film, yet another politically charged work that's a response to the autocratic Iranian regime and its deplorable methods.  

While receiving the award, handed to him by Juliette Binoche and Cate Blanchett, Panahi urged fellow Iranians to unite in the name of freedom from oppressive systems and put aside differences to concentrate on sorting out the bigger problem. "What's most important now is our country and the freedom of our country," he added, calling everyone to "join forces" and resist those who "tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do, or what we should not do."

Panahi received the award from Juliette Binoche and Cate Blanchett. The former, the Jury President of this year's edition of the festival, said this on the decision to give Panahi the prize: "Art mobilises the creative energy of the most precious, most alive part of us. A force that transforms darkness into forgiveness, hope and new life."

It's been 15 years since Panahi last made an appearance at a film festival following a lengthy travel ban. The 64-year-old, who was sentenced to a six-year prison for protesting the arrest of two Iranian filmmakers who criticised the government, had completed seven months of the sentence before being released in 2023. He was previously arrested in 2010 for the same reasons.

It Was Just an Accident was based on his ordeals in prison and conversations with fellow inmates. In the film, five Iranians kidnap a one-legged man who they believe was the man who tortured them in detention and make plans to exact their vengeance on him.

"Before going to jail and before getting to know the people that I met there - and hearing their stories, their backgrounds - the issues I dealt with in my films were totally different," said the director in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter. "It's really in this context (...) with this new commitment that I had felt in prison, that I had the idea, the inspiration for this story."

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