From May 13 to 24, the 78th Cannes Film Festival honored some of the most compelling new voices in cinema. The Palme d’Or went to Iranian director Jafar Panahi for UN SIMPLE ACCIDENT, a quietly powerful film shaped by his own experiences with the Iranian regime. Joachim Trier was awarded with the Grand Prix for AFFEKSJONSVERDI (Sentimental Value), while German director Mascha Schilinski received the Jury Prize for her widely praised drama SOUND OF FALLING.

This year’s Palme d’Or winner is Jafar Panahi’s Un Simple Accident – a quietly devastating political thriller that unfolds with the precision of a moral parable. The story begins with a night-time mishap: Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), a driver traveling with his pregnant wife, hits a stray dog. Seeking help, he ends up at a remote garage, unaware that the man who offers assistance believes him to be the former prison guard who once tortured him. What follows is a tense and haunting confrontation, as past traumas resurface and the lines between victim and perpetrator blur. Shot in secret to avoid the Iranian government’s strict censorship laws, Panahi’s latest film is both deeply personal and unmistakably political. Having endured imprisonment, house arrest, and a decades-long filmmaking ban, the Iranian director continues to film in defiance – turning restriction into resistance. With its stripped-down narrative and restrained visuals, Un Simple Accident speaks volumes about justice, memory, and the fragile pursuit of freedom in a society ruled by silence.

Un Simple Accident will be released in French cinemas on September 10, 2025.

A standing ovation for the screening of a movie is a rare occurrence. Even then, it’s not normal for the applause to last over 19 minutes. And if it happens at Cannes, you just know you’re in for something truly special. “Affeksjonsverdi” or Sentimental Value is a dramedy by Norwegian director Joachim Trier which intimately explores family dynamics and the reconciliatory power of art through the story of a father trying to reconnect with his two estranged daughters, by offering his eldest a role in his upcoming film. When she turns him down, he decides to cast a young Hollywood star instead. This choice triggers a chain of events that deeply challenge the families already difficult ties. This soulful premise, paired with (as usual) stellar performances by Elle Fanning, Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Stella Skarsgård won the screenplay rightfully the Grand Price (Grand Prix) of the 78th Festival de Cannes.

Sound of Falling, a German feature film by director Mascha Schilinski, won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The drama follows four young girls and their lives, all living in the same rural farmhouse in the north German region of Altmark during different decades. What the film captures with particular brilliance is its handling of perspective across the shifting timelines. It drifts fluidly through time while slipping forward and backward without warning. The camera often peers through keyholes and floorboards, as if the house itself were bearing witness.

As the story unfolds, the boundaries between characters blur. Though we rarely see them share the screen, the performances of Hanna Heckt, Lea Drinda, Lena Urzendowsky, and Laeni Geiseler, all delivering a distinct yet interconnected portrait of youth, longing, and quiet rebellion. Sound of Falling weaves impressive imagery with immersive sound design to create something both harsh and graceful, an elegy for time, memory, and the women who carry it.