It Was Just an Accident
Drawing primarily from our 35mm collection, we are presenting an exquisite spring bouquet of Palme d’or winners to coincide with the can’t-miss Cannes Film Festival.
Winner of the Palme d'or, 2025 Cannes Film Festival
A small mishap triggers a chain reaction of ever-growing problems.
Jafar Panahi
Jafar Panahi is an Iranian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and editor. He his among the most influential figures of the Iranian New Wave. He won the top prizes at Europe's three major film festivals: the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival in 2000 for The Circle, the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2005 for Taxi, and the Palme d'or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025 for It Was Just an Accident. His work, rooted in neorealism and centered on the lives of women, children, and the marginalized, constitutes a critical portrait of the social, political, and gendered structures of contemporary Iran. In 2010, he was sentenced to six years in prison and a 20-year ban on filmmaking activities, based on charges of "propaganda against the Islamic Republic". Even under legal restrictions, he continued to make films without permission, many of them produced semi-clandestinely.
