The 78th Palme D'or To The Dissident Iranian Director Jafar Panahi

Palme d'or winner Jafar Panahi

The 78th Festival de Cannes and its Jury presided over by Juliette Binoche has made their verdict and announced the winners from 22 films in Competition. The Palme d'or of 2025 went to the dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi and his film Un Simple Accident (It Was Just An Accident).

Jafar Panahi has been imprisoned by the Iranian government and banned of film-making but never stopped directing over the years. Un Simple Accident is also inspired by his imprisonment, which follows five characters who believe they identified the person who was anonymously torturing them in prison. According to Panahi, he also was hearing and remembering the voice that kept questioning him for hours in prison while he was blindfolded. "And I had an intuition that someday this voice would be an aspect of something I’d write or shoot and give a creative life to.”

Grand Prix of the Jury was handed to Joachim Trier’s domestic drama Sentimental Value. Meanwhile the Jury Prize this year has been shared between the Spanish director Oliver Laxe’s Sirat and the German director Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling.

Best director award went to Kleber Mendonça Filho's O Agente Secreto (Secret Agent), Wagner Moura has received the prize for the best performance as an actor in the same film. Nadia Melitti was honoured for the best actress's performance in The Little Sister.

The major Un Certain Regard award went to Diego Céspedes' The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.

The Palme d'or for the short film went to Tawfeek Barhom's I'm Glad You're Dead Now.

See the winners' list here.