Jafar Panahi wins Palme d’Or for ‘It Was Just an Accident’ as Cannes draws curtains on a starry and divisive year
CNN
The Iranian director walked away with top honors on Saturday, concluding a festival spiked with discord and littered with gems.
There was a Hollywood ending on the French Riviera on Saturday evening as Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was awarded the Palme d’Or, top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s the first time Panahi has won the festival’s highest honor, a sensational outcome after years of personal and professional adversity. The dissident director has endured multiple run-ins with the Iranian government, including imprisonment, most recently from 2022 to 2023. The director of “No Bears,” “Taxi,” “This Is Not A Film” and more has continued to make movies, despite a ban, though he has not been able to attend the festival for over two decades. In 2010, he was due to serve on the competition jury at Cannes but incarceration prevented him traveling to France. The festival kept an empty chair for him, and that year, actress Juliette Binoche held up a sign bearing his name as she accepted the award for best actress. Now fifteen years later, a jury headed by Binoche awarded his film “It Was Just an Accident” the Palme. Panahi has reportedly said his film was partly inspired by his most recent incarceration. “It Was Just an Accident” features ex-political prisoners who kidnap a man they believe to be their former interrogator, though they are riven with doubts – and doubts about what to do with him. Elsewhere, the festival awarded “Sentimental Value” by Joachim Trier the Grand Prix (runner-up), and the Jury Prize was shared by “Sirat,” directed by Oliver Laxe, and “The Sound of Falling,” by Mascha Schilinkski. Best actor went to Wagner Moura for “The Secret Agent” by Kleber Mendonça Filho, who also won best director. Best actress was awarded to Nadia Melliti for “La Petite Dernière.” “Resurrection” by Bi Gan was awarded a Special Prize, while best screenplay was handed to Cannes stalwarts Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for “Young Mothers.”
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