Amid conflict at home, Iranian director wins top prize at Sydney Film Festival

Sydney Morning Herald

15-06-2025

Amid turmoil in his home country, visiting Iranian director Jafar Panahi has won the 72nd Sydney Film Festival's $60,000 official competition with the thriller It Was Just an Accident.
Panahi, who stepped back from attending screenings during the Israel-Iran conflict to stay in touch with family and friends, came to Sydney after winning the Palme d'Or, the major prize at Cannes, with the same film last month.
It is a tense and twisting story with a darkly comic edge about former political prisoners who discover their intelligence agent torturer, living as a civilian, and have to decide whether they want revenge.
Made in secret to avoid submitting the script to a government censor, it is a savage critique of repression and abusive power that was officially slammed in Iran after winning at Cannes, raising the prospect of further sanctions against a filmmaker who has already served jail time for 'creating propaganda against the system' and supporting anti-government protesters.
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The standout of the 12 films in a competition for 'audacious, courageous and cutting-edge' cinema, It Was Just an Accident was a deserving winner at a festival where Panahi was also the subject of a 10-film retrospective.
Australian director Justin Kurzel, who headed the jury, described it as 'a courageous film with a deep soul and a powerful sense of forgiveness' that had 'outstanding performances and an understated authority which is brimming with truth'.
Kurzel said that in times of conflict and uncertainty it was more important than ever that filmmakers had freedom to express what they saw around them.
'The films we watched led with empathy, compassion and kindness,' he said. 'The directors trusted that their stories would make us feel first, connect to a personal point of view; they were political, but human first.'