Cannes 2025 Awards: Iranian Filmmaker Jafar Panahi Wins Palme d’Or
by Alex Billington
May 24, 2025
Source: Cannes
Winners of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival awards, including the coveted Palme d’Or, were revealed at a glamorous ceremony in Cannes, France this weekend. The awards this year were surprising and unexpected, with many films from across the board picking up prizes from a rather lackluster competition selection. The top prize Palme d’Or went to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and his latest film titled It Was Just an Accident (aka Un Simple Accident or A Simple Accident). This is a huge win for Panahi, who escaped from Iran recently after being unjustly imprisoned there for making his films. He originally won the Camera d’Or at Cannes (for a first-time filmmaker) back in 1995 for The White Balloon – this Palme has been a long time coming. The other excellent film everyone loved and was rooting for was Sentimental Value, Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s wonderful new feature about an actress reconnecting with his father. This was my Palme pick as the best film of the festival this year, but it only took home Grand Prix. Another favorite Sirat won the Jury Prize (in third place) tied with German filmmaker Mascha Schilinski and her film Sound of Falling. An intriguing mix of my top films and my least favorites winning prizes – along with many others.
Here’s the full list of Cannes 2025 winners, with most of the key awards listed below, including Un Certain Regard. I’ll get into my own commentary after the winners. Visit the official Cannes website for more info.
Palme d’Or (Golden Palm):
It Was Just an Accident (Un Simple Accident) directed by Jafar Panahi
Grand Prix (Runner Up):
Sentimental Value directed by Joachim Trier
Jury Prize:
Sirât directed by Oliver Laxe
(tied with) Sound of Falling directed by Mascha Schilinski
Best Director:
Kleber Mendonça Filho for The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto)
Best Screenplay:
Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne for Young Mothers (Jeunes Mères)
Special Award:
Bi Gan for Resurrection
Camera d’Or (First-Time Filmmaker):
The President’s Cake directed by Hasan Hadi
Special Mention Camera d’Or:
My Father’s Shadow directed by Akinola Davies Jr.
Best Performance by an Actress:
Nadia Melliti in Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister
Best Performance by an Actor:
Wagner Moura in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard Prize:
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo directed by Diego Céspedes
Jury Prize:
A Poet (Un Poeta) directed by Simón Mesa Soto
Best Director:
Arab & Tarzan Nasser for Once Upon a Time in Gaza
Best Actress:
Cleo Diára for I Only Rest in the Storm (O Riso e a Faca)
Best Actor:
Frank Dillane for Urchin
Best Screenplay:
Pillion written & directed by Harry Lighton
That’s all the big winners at Cannes this year. Congrats to all of the 2025 festival films! As for my thoughts, well I’m entirely not happy with these picks. It’s pretty clear the jury was going to award Trier’s Sentimental Value the Palme (which it absolutely deserved) until jury prez Juliette Binoche overruled. She admitted that she chose it for political reasons, giving it to him because he was persecuted and this film represents his freedom and all that he has been through. It’s not a terrible film, it’s just not the right pick for Palme, which is meant to be an award for artistic quality not politics. We can talk about all that Panahi has been through & he deserves acclaim – but not for this film. In my opinion, his three other most recent films before this one are much better. But they didn’t win. I’m also very happy about Sirât’s prize, because this film is awesome and most critics were unsure if the jury would fall for it as much as we did. And I’m also delighted by seeing them give a special prize to My Father’s Shadow, and outstanding & emotional little film from Nigeria – the first ever Nigerian film to play in Cannes. There’s plenty to debate & argue about with these awards but I won’t give in and say they’re fine when honestly I believe the wrong film won Palme this year… It happens. And many people did enjoy it. Keep an eye out for all these winners from Cannes + more from the selection.
The 2025 jury was lead by French actress Juliette Binoche as President, with: Halle Berry, Payal Kapadia, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sangsoo, Carlos Reygadas, & Jeremy Strong. This brings us to the end of our 2025 updates, another year covering Cannes wraps up with these festival awards.
 |
