Cannes 2025 Winners List: Jafar Panahi bags the Palme d'Or for It Was Just An Accident

The Cannes Film Festival 2025 concluded after almost a week of screening films from around the world. With several films competing for the coveted Palme d'Or, Jafar Panahi's It Was Just An Accident ended up with the honour. The Palme d'Or for short films was awarded to Tawfeek Barhom's I'm Glad You're Dead Now. In the Un Certain Regard programme, the Un Certain Regard prize was given to Diego Cespedes' The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.

The jury for the main competition for films competing for the Palme d'Or was headed by French actress Juliette Binoche. Other members of the jury included the director of All We Imagine As Light, Payal Kapadia, and actors Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, and Alba Rohrwacher.

Bleat! (Kattu!), the Malaysian film in the Tamil language, directed by Ananth Subramaniam, won the Best Short Film at the Queer Palm competition.

This year Robert De Niro was awarded the Honorary Palme d'Or, which was presented to him by Leonardo DiCaprio. Denzel Washington was surprised with an Honorary Palme d'Or, which was presented to him by director Spike Lee.

List of Winners:

Main Competition:

Feature Films:

Palme d'Or - It Was Just An Accident (Jafar Panahi)

Grand Prix - Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)

Joint Jury Prize - Sirat (Oliver Laxe) and Sound of Falling (Mascha Schilinski)

Best Director - Kleber Mendonca Filho (The Secret Agent)

Best Screenplay - Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne (Young Mothers)

Best Performance By an Actress - Nadia Melliti (The Little Sister)

Best Performance By an Actor- Wagner Moura (The Secret Agent)

Special Award - Resurrection (Bi Gan)

Short Films:

Palme d'Or- I'm Glad You're Dead Now (Tawfeek Barhom)

Special Mention - Ali (Adnan Al Rajeev)

Un Certain Regard:

Un Certain Regard Prize - The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Diego Cespedes)

Jury Prize - A Poet (Simon Mesa Soto)

Best Directing - Arab and Tarzan Nasser (Once Upon A Time In Gaza)

Best Actor - Frank Dillane (Urchin)

Best Actress - Cleo Diara (I Only Rest in the Storm)

Best Screenplay - Harry Lighton (Pillon)