VIDEO. Cannes Film Festival 2025: "The most important thing is the freedom of our country," reacts Jafar Panahi upon receiving the Palme d'Or

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The Iranian filmmaker was honored for his film "A Simple Accident." This is a highly political award, as the director was imprisoned several times in the jails of the mullahs' regime.

The Cannes Film Festival is making history. The Palme d'Or was awarded on Saturday, May 24, to Iranian director Jafar Panahi for A Simple Accident , filmed clandestinely in his country. This film, a moral thriller denouncing the arbitrariness of Iranian security forces, examines the temptation of former prisoners to take revenge on their torturers.

Jafar Panahi, imprisoned twice in Iran and banned from filming and traveling, has continued his work against all odds: "I am alive because I make films," he confided Tuesday on the sidelines of the screening of his film. For the first time in 15 years , the 64-year-old filmmaker was able to attend the Cannes Film Festival. This Saturday, the supreme award was presented to him by jury president Juliette Binoche.

On stage at the Palais des Festivals, he made a vibrant appeal: "The most important thing right now is our country and our country's freedom." Refusing to go into exile, the filmmaker has insisted he wants to return to Iran despite the risk of reprisals from the regime. Jafar Panahi thus joins Abbas Kiarostami, winner of the Palme d'Or in 1997, in the select circle of Iranian Palme d'Or winners.

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