Jafar Panahi collapsed into his seat at the Grand Théâtre Lumière on Saturday evening during the closing ceremony of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. The Iranian filmmaker had just heard actress Juliette Binoche inform the world that he had won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize, for his eleventh film, “Un Simple Accident” (“It Was Just An Accident”). Panahi only rose to his feet after a lengthy moment in which he seemed to soak up the audience’s applause.

One can only imagine what was going through Panahi’s mind as he made his way to the stage, collecting the cast and crew of his film along the way. After all, there had been speculation whether the filmmaker would even be present in Cannes to present his latest film; a dark satirical drama centered around a group of former political prisoners who abduct a man they believe was their torturer, exploring themes of trauma, justice, and forgiveness. The film was inspired by the stories he learned from fellow inmates during his 2022 imprisonment in Iran’s infamous Evin Prison.

In 2009, Panahi received a 20-year ban from traveling outside of Iran due to his attending a funeral of a student killed during protests against the government. The sentence also came with a 20-year filmmaking ban for “propagandizing against the government.” Placed under house arrest Panahi continued to secretly make movies anyway, which were snuck out of the country. Thus the ironic title of his 2011 movie “This Is Not A Film,” which was screened in Cannes, as well as his 2018 competition entry “3 Faces,” for which he won the Best Screenplay prize. Like his 2015 movie, “Taxi,” which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, “It Was Just An Accident” was filmed entirely in secret.

Originally, in 2010, Panahi was given a six-year prison sentence, however it was only in July of 2022 that he was required to begin serving time after he was re-arrested for inquiring about the incarceration of another filmmaker, Mohammad Rasoulof, with the prosecutor’s office in Tehran. Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” appeared in competition at Cannes last year, winning the Prix Spécial and the FIPRESCI Prize, before going on to win countless other awards throughout 2024. In early 2023, after nearly seven months in prison and following a hunger strike, Panahi was released on bail.

Accepting the Palme d’Or Panahi spoke through interpreter, describing cinema as a tool for resistance against oppressive forces. Calling on Iranians all over the world, he said “Let’s put all our differences aside. The most important thing right now is our country and the freedom of our our country. Let us join forces so that no one dares to tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do, or what we should say. Cinema is a society. No one has the right to tell us what to do or refrain from doing.”

Panahi, who won the Caméra d’Or in Cannes in 1995 for his first film, “The White Balloon,” is the first Iranian filmmaker to win the Palme since Abbas Kiarostami in 1997 for “Taste of Cherry.” He led what was widely considered one of the stronger festival competition lineups in recent years. While there were no runaway favorites, as there was last year when “Anora” and “Emilia Pérez” premiered in-competition on their way to Oscar glory, there were at least half a dozen titles which easily could have been award the Palme just as easily.

Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier was given the Grand Prix, generally viewed as the runner up to the Palme, for his movie “Sentimental Value.” Starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, the film delves into complex family dynamics that explores the concepts of memory and reconciliation.

This year’s Cannes Jury Prize was a tie between “Sirât” from director Oliver Laxe, which presented a visually arresting journey through the Moroccan desert in a hallucinatory exploration of faith and survival, and German filmmaker Mascha Schilinski’s “Sound of Falling,” an ambitious portrayal of generational female suffering, in a non-linear visually poetic museum piece.

The jury, presided over by Binoche, consisted of American actress Halle Berry, American actor Jeremy Strong, South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo, Italian-German actress Alba Rohrwacher, Congolese documentarian Dieudo Hamadi, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia, French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, and Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas.

The group awarded the Brazilian film “The Secret Agent” with two prizes including Best Director for Kleber Mendonça Filho and Best actor for Wagner Moura, who portrays the main character. The film, set both in the 1970s and the modern day, is a political thriller loosely based on Joseph Conrad’s novel. The Best Actress prize went to Nadia Melliti for “The Little Sister,” in which the Tunisian Melliti, in her first film role, portrays a young woman comes to terms with her sexuality while navigating her religious convictions and personal desires in a conservative community.

Festival perennials Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne took home the Best Screenplay award for “Young Mothers,” a tale of teenage pregnancy told from a socially aware perspective. Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan was presented with a Special Award for “Resurrection,” a three hour epic which blends storylines and visual styles into narrative collage.

The Un Certain Regard section in Cannes often features emerging talent on their way to appearing in-compeition during future editions of the festival. Diego Céspedes won the top prize for Un Certain Regard for his film, “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.” The Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard went to “A Poet” from Colombian filmmaker Simón Mesa Soto. The film stars Ubeimar Rios, who has never acted before, as a middle-aged, struggling poet who begins to turn his life around mentoring Yurlady, one of his teenage students.

Down the Croisette, Hasan Hadi’s “The President’s Cake” appeared in the Directors’ Fortnight section and received the Camera d’Or for best first feature. Set in Iraq in the 1990s, the film follows a 9-year-old girl named Lamia who is assigned by her teacher to bake a cake for President Saddam Hussein’s birthday. At a time in which economic sanctions caused food shortages, Lamia struggles to find ingredients to make the cake, while facing certain punishment for not completing the assignment. The entire film was shot in Iraq, depicting a rarely seen side of the country.