Cannes Film Festival 2025: The Palme d'Or for "A Simple Accident," a double for "The Secret Agent"... What to remember from a very political awards ceremony that rewards audacity

The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival – a very good vintage, bold, political and creative – ended on May 23 with a fine list of winners rewarding eight films out of the 22 feature films in competition.

A competition marked by its geographical diversity : 14 countries represented, including France with three feature films. The female presence was still timid, but things have improved, with seven female directors in the running for the Palme d'Or this year.

However, the jury only awarded two films directed by women: Mascha Schilinski's The Sound of Falling , which won the Jury Prize, and Hafsia Herzi's The Little Last One , which won the Best Actress Award. The Little Last One is the only French film to receive an award this year. Dominik Moll's Dossier 137 and Julia Ducournau's Alpha both left without a prize.

Another distinctive feature of the films competing for the Palme d'Or this year is their commitment. A dimension that the jury recognized by awarding its Palme d'Or to Iranian director Jafar Panahi and the Jury Prize to two daring films, Sirat by the Spaniard Oliver Laxe, and The Sound of Falling by the German Mascha Schilinski.

No American film caught the attention of the jurors. Ari Aster, who presented Eddington with Joaquin Phoenix , Lynne Ramsay, director of Die, My Love with Jennifer Lawrence, Richard Linklater, who paid a wonderful tribute to Jean-Luc Godard in Nouvelle Vague , and Kelly Reichardt, director of The Mastermind , all went home empty-handed.

This very fine list of winners is back, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Palme d'Or.

Jafar Panahi's "A Simple Accident": a very political Palme d'Or that rewards a gem

So it is an Iranian, 28 years after Abbas Kiarostami, who receives the Palme d'Or this year. From its official screening on May 20, dedicated by Jafar Panahi to "All the Iranian artists who had to leave Iran," A Simple Accident has risen to the top of all predictions. The jury therefore came as no surprise by awarding the Palme d'Or to this cinematic marvel, which combines poetry and a strong political message. It was made in extreme conditions, clandestinely, by a director who has already spent two periods in the jails of the Islamic regime.

A Simple Accident revisits the plight of "political" prisoners in Iran. The director takes us aboard a van in which Vahid has locked up a man he recognizes as his torturer. Aboard the van are a bride-to-be in her dress, her husband, their wedding photographer, and another man. All former prisoners have suffered the violence of the man they called "The Leg." They recognize him but are awaiting his confession.

Receiving his Palme d'Or, surrounded by his tearful team, Jafar Panahi called on all Iranians to forget their differences, "because what is important, at this moment, is our country, and the freedom of our country," he declared.

"Let us be united, let us be together to live this moment when no one will dare tell us how we should dress, what we should say, or what we should do."

Jafar Panahi

during the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival

"Cinema is a society, no one has the right to tell us what we should do, what we should say," he concluded after thanking his family and his children "for all the time he was not with them to make his film."

The jury recognized Jafar Panahi as a filmmaker who harnesses the power of the seventh art to tell the story of human tragedies. Last year, the award eluded another Iranian dissident, Mohammad Rasoulof, who had to settle for a special prize.

Grand Prize for "Sentimental Value" by Joachim Trier

The jury awarded the second most prestigious prize of the Festival to Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value for the second time in competition at Cannes after Julie (in 12 chapters). The film had earned Renate Reinsve the Best Actress Award in 2021 .

The Norwegian director won the award for a family chronicle that depicts an elderly film director trying to reconnect with his two daughters. He decided to shoot the film in the family home, which is central to the narrative, as a testament to what has been going on there for generations.

This film confirms the Norwegian director's virtuosity in directing actors and in translating the complexity of human relationships onto the screen in a clear production. "This film is carried by the actors, it is intended for all of us," said Joachim Trier, receiving his award from Coralie Fargeat, winner of the Screenplay Award for The Substance in 2024 .

"Sirat" and "The Sound of Falling": two winners for a joint Jury Prize that rewards audacity

The Sound of Falling opened the Cannes competition . Directed by German director Mascha Schilinski, the film is both feminist and bold in its direction. It tells the stories of a family's daughters across several generations through the life of a house. This multi-voiced temporal variation offers a feminine perspective on the feminine , both intimate and universal, spanning a century of history.

" Your voices are important, don't give up on your work, don't give up on your projects," the director said in an address to women. She thanked all those who "believed in us to make this film free of its thoughts and its messages."

Sirat , the other Jury Prize winner, is "the" film of the competition that shook the Croisette. This epic in the Moroccan desert, which stars Sergi Lopez as a father searching for his daughter, is a film about death that puts man in his place . A film with techno beats, synchronized with the pulse of a world adrift.

"You were made into different tribes so that you would 'know each other,'" said Oliver Laxe, quoting the Koran, upon receiving his award. "That's what the Cannes Film Festival does: it brings together several cultural latitudes in this wonderful game of mirrors that is cinema, which teaches us to always look at the world as if it were the first time," added the Spanish director.

The Special Prize for "Resurrection," the Chinese director's crazy film Bi Gan

"At the opening of every film, there is beautiful music by Saint-Saens, and steps, and steps, which rise from the depths of the water, and which arrive towards the sky where we see thousands of stars. Sometimes we find wonders there, and in these wonders there was an exceptional film. We decided to offer a special prize to this film," declared Juliette Binoche before presenting her trophy to Bi Gan herself.

This special award recognizes an incredible film, which offers breathtakingly beautiful sequences. Arguably the craziest film in the competition, in terms of direction and sets, Resurrection tells the story of the 20th century. century through a journey through the fantastic imagery of cinema since its origins.

Best Actor Award awarded to Wagner Moura in "The Secret Agent"

The Best Actor Award goes to Wagner Moura, in The Secret Agent, a film that was almost unanimously acclaimed on the Croisette. The actor became known for his role in the series Narcos . He plays Marcelo, a man on the run, who is hiding to escape who knows what danger precisely.

The Brazilian actor carries with a magnetic presence the stifling atmosphere that weighs on the film throughout . "Wagner Moura is not only an exceptional actor, but he is also a very special human being, I adore him," said Kleber Mendonça Filho upon receiving his award for actor, who was absent from the ceremony. "I hope this award will bring him a lot," added the filmmaker.

Best Actress Award for Nadia Melliti in "La Petite Dernière"

The young actress, who was cast by Hafzia Hersi in the world of sport, embodies with power and astonishing accuracy for a beginner actress the character of Fatima, the youngest of a family of Algerian immigrants who discovers her homosexuality. The film follows step by step the young girl's path to emancipation . Through this intimate destiny, the director and actress Hafsia Herzi touches on universal questions, which question identity in the broadest sense.

" Good evening everyone," said Nadia Melliti, standing tall in her boots before the large crowd gathered for this closing ceremony. "I am going through emotions here, I couldn't describe them to you, but they are incredible," she confided before thanking Hafsia Herzi, the other actors in the film, "STAPS" (the young woman is a second-year student in Physical and Sports Activities Science and Technology), and her mother.

Best Director Award, a second award for Kleber Mendonça Filho's film

The secret agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho won a double by winning the prestigious Best Director Award after the Best Actor Award for Wagner Moura. The film tells the story of the life under a dictatorship, in a story steeped in mystery.

The jury praised a production that blends several genres – from thrillers to spy films and fantasy films – to create a unique cinematic signature.

The Best Screenplay Award goes to the favorite duo of the Cannes Film Festival

The Best Screenplay Award went to Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for Young Mothers, a moving film about early motherhood . The film focuses on five characters: Jessica, Perla, Julie, Ariane, and Naïma, all five of whom are welcomed into a maternity home where they are helped to take their first steps in life as young mothers.

The Dardenne brothers thus receive a new distinction at a festival that has long supported their work. "The Cannes Film Festival has been a very good home for our films," Luc Dardenne assured franceinfo Culture in an interview a few days before the festival.

"The script is the starting point for a film, but this film would be nothing without the young actresses, without these five young girls, so thank you to all five of you," said Luc Dardenne. Young Mothers is the tenth film by the Dardenne brothers in competition at Cannes. The inseparable duo has already won two Palmes d'Or, the first in 1999 for Rosetta, which revealed actress Emilie Dequenne, who died in March , and the second in 2005 for The Child .

The Caméra d'Or for a first Iraqi film

Hasan Hadi's The President's Cake wins the Caméra d'Or, a cross-disciplinary award that honors the director of a chosen first film in the official selection and parallel sections (Competition, Un Certain Regard, Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week). Shot in Iraq with an Iraqi cast, The President's Cake is one of the few films produced in the country for decades.

"Children have no prejudices," said Hasan Hadi, interviewed in Cannes by franceinfo Culture. The feature film tells the story of little Lamia, who is tasked with making the president's cake for her class in the 1990s. The culinary mission becomes a matter of life or death for the girl, who embarks on the adventure with her friend Saeed. Through the odyssey of these two children, Hasan Hadi paints a portrait of a country where nothing is right.

Palme d'Or for Best Short Film

The Palme d'Or for Best Short Film goes to Glad You're Dead Now , a French-Greek-Palestinian film by Tawfeek Barhom, which tells the story of two brothers returning to the island of their childhood, where buried secrets and heavy tensions force them to confront a dark past that binds them together. "In twenty years, we'll go to the Gaza Strip and try not to think about the dead," the director said upon receiving his Palme d'Or.

Two honorary Palmes d'Or for Robert de Niro and Denzel Washington

While Robert de Niro's honorary Palme d'Or was expected, Denzel Washington's lifetime achievement award came as a surprise. It was presented to him by Spike Lee, his longtime film partner, at the out-of-competition presentation of his new film, Highest 2 Lowest .

Other prizes

The Un Certain Regard section, which focuses on highlighting discoveries, awarded the prize on May 23 to The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo , the first feature film by Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes. The film by the 30-year-old filmmaker tells the story of a group of transgender women in a remote village in the Chilean desert who must deal with a mysterious illness.

In the parallel sections, Critics' Week crowned Useful Ghost ("A Useful Ghost"), the first film by Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke. The French Touch Prize of the Jury of the Week went to Imago , the first Chechen film to be presented at Cannes. Déni Oumar Pitsaev, whom franceinfo Culture met on the Croisette , also won the Golden Eye, a prize awarded each year to the best documentary at the Festival in all competitions.

The Audience Choice Award at the Filmmakers' Fortnight went to Hasan Hadi's The President's Cake . Valéry Carnoy's Dance of the Foxes received the SACD Authors' Favorite Award. And finally, the 2025 Queer Palm Award jury, chaired by Christophe Honoré, awarded Hafsia Herzi's La Petite Dernière on May 23.