19 h. ago Jafar Panahi wins Cannes Palme d’Or for revenge thriller It Was Just an Accident

‘Cinema is society. Nobody is entitled to tell what we should or refrain from doing,’ Panahi said

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22 h. ago Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi wins Cannes Palme d’Or for revenge thriller It Was Just an Accident

‘Cinema is society. Nobody is entitled to tell what we should or refrain from doing,’ Panahi says

Politics

31 h. ago Jafar Panahi’s Cannes victory is a wonderful moment for an amazingly courageous film

Panahi has endured years of harassment from the Iranian authorities but has created a tremendous body of work; his Palme d’Or is richly deservedIranian director Jafar Panahi wins Palme d’Or at Cannes for It Was Just an AccidentIn the end, the Cannes Palme d’Or went to the most courageous film director in the world. It was a very satisfying grownup decision, favouring a remarkable and utterly individual film-maker: the director and democracy campaigner Jafar Panahi, an artist who unlike any other director in the Cannes competition really has suffered, taken real risks for cinema and spoken truth to power – and endured arrest and imprisonment for his pains.He has created a rich canon of work which has told the world about Iranian society and the Iranian mind with a subtlety and depth that we are never going to get from the TV news. Continue reading...

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32 h. ago Iranian director Jafar Panahi wins Palme d’Or at Cannes for It Was Just an Accident

Panahi, long censored and previously imprisoned in his home country, took top prize as Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent also honouredThe dissident Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi has won the top prize at the Cannes film festival for his drama It Was Just an Accident, inspired by his stints of imprisonment at the hands of the Iranian government.The film was the first made by the director after a ban on film-making was lifted – although he has continued to direct despite being expressly forbidden to do so. In 2011, a year after his first arrest, a copy of his drama This Is Not a Film was snuck into Cannes on a USB stick hidden in a cake. Continue reading...

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60 h. ago Falling palm trees and a faltering Palme d’Or director: how Cannes 2025 went – and who will win

In a Cannes film festival where the greatest movies were about dictatorships and political cruelty, our chief critic shares his picks for the prixCannes this year had a lot to live up to after last year’s award-winners, headline-grabbers and social media meltdowners Anora, The Substance and Emilia Pérez. It makes reading the signs now that bit more difficult: the bizarre event on the Croisette boulevard this year was a palm tree falling over. If it happened in a film, the metaphor would be unbearable.Whether 2025’s Cannes movies are going to spark a new burst of overwhelming excitement remains to be seen, though this year’s vintage feels good – often excellent, although even the biggest names can get it wrong: former Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau presented an incoherent drama called Alpha. Continue reading...

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6 d. ago Denzel Washington surprised with honorary Palme d'Or award at Cannes Film Festival

The legendary actor, 70, attended the premiere of his latest film Highest 2 Lowest during the event in which director Spike Lee presented him with the award.

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