Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the Palme d’Or this year for “It Was Just An Accident.”
According to Reuters and other sources on the 24th (local time), at the closing ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival held in the southern French resort city of Cannes, Panahi’s film “It Was Just An Accident” won the Palme d’Or, the top prize of the festival.
Panahi has been arrested multiple times for anti-government protests. He was re-imprisoned in 2022 and released on bail after a hunger strike demanding his release in February 2023, and the award-winning film is known to be the first he made following his release.
With this award, Panahi has now won the top prize at all three major European film festivals. He received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000, the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006 and 2013, and the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2015.
Juliette Binoche, the jury chair, announced the winning film, stating, “Art moves the creative energy of our most precious and living parts,” and described it as having the power to transform darkness into “forgiveness, hope, and new life.”
Panahi took the stage and said, “All Iranians at home and abroad should unite, setting aside all problems and differences. What is most important now is the freedom of our country. No one can tell us what we should wear or what we should and shouldn’t do.”
The runner-up Grand Prix went to Norwegian director Joachim Trier from Denmark for “Sentimental Value.” The Jury Prize was jointly awarded to Oliver Lasse’s “Shirat” and Marsha Shilinski’s “Sound of Falling.”
The 78th Cannes Film Festival, which began on the 13th, concluded its journey with the closing ceremony. Korean feature films have not produced entries in the competitive category for three years. At this festival, the short film “First Summer” by director Heo Gayoung became the first Korean film to win first place in the “institutional sector” category.