Last year,Anorawent all the way from the Croisette, where it won the Palme d’Or at the77thCannes Film Festival, to Hollywood’s biggest night. At this year’s Oscars ceremony,Anorawon five of the six awards it was nominated for, with directorSean Baker breaking the record for most Oscars wonby a person in a single night for the same film. He took home Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing, and a Best Picture trophy for his role as producer. In a shocking upset, Mikey Madison also won Best Actress over assumed favorite Demi Moore and her performance inThe Substance.
Anorawas the first film to win both the Palme and Best Picture since 2019, whenParasitesimilarly broke a slew of records. Prior to that, though, you have to go all the way back to 1955 to find another film that won both prizes - that year,Martywas bestowed those honors. The only other time was in 1946, whenThe Last Weekendnabbed both awards. Since 2019, one thing is clear, though - an increasing trend of Cannes debuts and further awards glory once the season really kicks off in the fall. With anew Palme d’Or winner just announced, does it have the same shot at winning big? And what are the prospects of the other award-winning films from this year’s edition of Cannes?
Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident Wins The Palme d’Or
The Revenge Thriller Will Continue To Have An Impact
The winner of this year’s Palme is lauded Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s latest film and one that continues his criticism of the Islamic Republic and the injustices he and other Iranians have faced at the hands of that oppressive regime. It’s the latest show of support from the international film community, who have consistently spoken out against the numerous imprisonments, filmmaking bans, and travel bans the director has faced as he has continued to make his revolutionary films.
In today’s cynical awards race, narrative is just as important as the quality of the film, andIt Was Just An Accidenthas a very important one built in. It also helps that it’s a damn good film, both a whipsmart revenge thriller and an important text about living under an oppressive regime, pondering questions about the cycle of
violence, the meaning of revenge, and the role trauma plays in the decisions we make every day. It’s an angry film - and rightfully so. Panahi made it after his most recent stint in prison that ended when the 65-year-old director went on a hunger strike.
With NEON distributingIt Was Just An Accident, it seems likely the film will get a robust campaign and will almost certainly see a nomination for Best International Feature - as a co-production between Iran, France, and Luxembourg, either of the latter two countries could submit the film for contention, as it’s unlikely Iran will do so. It’s entirely possible that Panahi could receive a Best Director nom, too. The director has long been praised for his films, and he is now one of four directors to win the three big festival prizes - the Palme d’Or (It Was Just An Accident), the Venice Golden Lion (The Circle), and the Berlin Golden Bear (Taxi).
Best Original Screenplay also isn’t out of the question and several below-the-line noms like editing are a possibility. How the cast will fare when it comes to this is more of an open question as it is comprised of mostly unknowns, though the film’s protagonist Vahid is played by previous Panahi collaborator Vahid Mobasseri.
What About The Other Films?
Multiple Cannes Titles Seem Primed For A Run
NOEN, the distributor behindAnoraandIt Was Just An Accident, already has a lot on its plate this year. It arrived at Cannes with several titles in various sections,includingSentimental Value,Alpha, andSplitsville. The distributor also picked up films at the festival that also went on to win awards, withKleber Mendonça Filho’sThe Secret AgentandOliver Laxe’sSiratadded to their lineup.The Secret Agentstar Wagner Moura won the Best Actor prize at Cannes while Sirat won the Jury Prize, shared withSound of Falling.It Was Just An Accident, though, is the film that netted NEON its sixth consecutive Palme win.
Sentimental Valuemay have the easiest path to nominations given the Academy’s familiarity with Joachim Trier and stars like Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning. Trier’s previous filmThe Worst Person in the Worldwas nominated for Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay. Lead actress Renate Reinsve’s star is also on the rise stateside - last year, she starred in A24’sA Different Manand Apple TV+’sPresumed Innocentwith Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s not hard to see Reinsve getting a Best Actress nom ifSentimental Valueclicks with voters.
The Secret Agentcould see Wagner Moura get his long-deserved first Oscar nomination come 2026. The film is ostensibly a spy story told with the melancholy of a thoughtful drama, surreal and sincere in its depiction of a man trying escape Brazil during the military dictatorship in the 1970s. Comparisons have been made toWalter Salles’I’m Still Here, set during a similar time period and also about Brazil’s military dictatorship. That film won Best International Feature and the sensational Fernanda Torres won Best Actress in a Drama at the Golden Globes. Perhaps Moura andThe Secret Agentcould follow a similar path.
NEON isn’t the only one in the game, though. There are numerous other films that could see more attention come fall. Though she lost the Actress prize at Cannes,Jennifer Lawrence’s performance inDie, My Loveis being heralded as the best of her career and could be seen as a return to form for the actor, who already has four Oscar nominations and one win under her belt. She seems likely to be welcomed back to the fray when all is said and done.
Sound of Falling, too, feels like a possible Best International Feature contender, but the film it shared the Jury Prize with,Sirat, may be a tougher sell. While a brilliant film, its shocking story, which takes quite a few insane turns, may not click with some of the Academy’s more traditional voters. Fortunately, the expansion of the membership pool could potentially override that.
In recent years, the Academy has admitted new members in droves, many of them coming from international film communities. These tastes have been reflected in recent winners such as the aforementionedI’m Still Hereand, most notably, inParasite’s absolutely deserved win in both the Best International Feature and Best Picture categories. It’s a welcome change after, for so long, the Academy rarely recognized cinematic achievements from around the world, instead focusing primarily on Hollywood productions. Now, though, things have changed and with Cannes 2025’s truly international lineup of winners and other films, there’s more room for everyone to receive the recognition they deserve. With NEON and Mubi, two distributors on the rise, backing these films, that also means that people may actually get to see these films in a theater, which is most important of all.
