France has chosen Iranian director Jafar Panahi‘s Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Simply an Accident as its entry for the Greatest Worldwide Characteristic Movie class of the 98th Academy Awards.
Panahi’s tense thriller stars Vahid Mubasseri as a person who believes he has discovered the person who tortured him whereas he was serving a jail sentence. In search of revenge, he kidnaps him and begins to bury him alive within the desert.
All of a sudden doubting that he has the fitting man, he seeks out a marriage photographer (Maryam Adshari) who was in jail with him, hoping she will verify the person’s identification. She is in the course of a photograph shoot with a bride (Hadis Pakbaten) and groom (Majid Panahi). Stress rises as they’re all thrown into the combination.
The members of the choice committee overseen by France’s Nationwide Cinema Centre (CNC), the identities of which had been stored underneath wraps till after their choice was made public, comprised gross sales agent Carole Baraton (Charades), producer Thierry de Clermont-Tonnerre (Mact Manufacturing), director and screenwriter Audrey Diwan, producer Ron Dyens (Sacrebleu Manufacturing), gross sales agent Grégoire Melin (Kinology), programmer Adeline Monzier, producer Sylvie Pialat (Les Movies du Worso), actor Clémence Poesy, producer Patrick Wachsberger and director Florian Zeller.
It was presided over by critic Charles Tesson.
“After profitable the Palme d’Or at Cannes, It Was Simply an Accident is now headed to the Oscars,” mentioned CNC director Gaëtan Bruel.
“This Iranian drama, directed by the nice filmmaker Jafar Panahi and produced with the decisive assist of France, notably the CNC, by means of Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, is proof that our nation, 130 years after inventing cinema, is the beating coronary heart of worldwide co-productions and a welcoming land for creators from everywhere in the world, particularly those that are prevented from working in their very own international locations. I hope it wins the celebrated statuette.”
Panahi’s public opposition to Iran’s Islamic Republic authorities means his movie was not thought of as a candidate to be the 2026 Iranian candidate. Its French route into the Oscars additionally comes by way of Paris-based co-producer Les Movies Pelléas and distributor Memento Distribution. Worldwide gross sales are dealt with by mk2 Movies, whereas Neon has U.S. rights.
Panahi follows within the footsteps of good friend and fellow dissident Mohammad Rasoulof, who represented Germany with The Seed of the Sacred Fig on the 97th Academy Awards, making it to the nomination stage.
It Was Simply an Accident world premiered in Cannes, profitable the Palme d’Or from a jury presided over by Juliette Binoche. It has since performed at a raft of festivals together with Locarno and Sydney, the place it received the Viewers Award, and most lately TIFF, the place Panahi stopped by the Deadline Studio.
The film heads subsequent to the San Sebastian and New York movie festivals. Neon has set an October 15 launch date for New York and an October 17 one for Los Angeles, whereas French distributor Memento will launch the characteristic in French cinemas October 1.
The battle to be the Oscar French candidate was notably fierce this 12 months, with the opposite shortlisted candidates together with Ugo Bienvenu’s Arco, Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Obscure and Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Personal Life starring Jodie Foster.
This 12 months’s choice follows within the wake of a tumultuous awards marketing campaign for France’s 2025 entry, the Mexico-set musical movie Emilia Pérez by Jacques Audiard.
The movie began out as one of many 2024-25 awards season’s scorching favorites, garnering a near-record 13 nominations, together with within the Greatest Worldwide Characteristic Movie class.
However its Oscar marketing campaign hit the rails after homophobic and racist social media posts by the movie’s star Karla Sofía Gascon, relationship again to the early 2020s, had been unveiled in early 2025. Within the backdrop, the movie additionally weathered criticisms over its portrayal of Mexico and trans individuals.
After making it onto the Greatest Worldwide Characteristic Movie Record, Emilia Pérez misplaced out within the class to Brazilian entry I’m Nonetheless Right here by Walter Salles however clinched Oscars for Greatest Authentic Music and Greatest Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña).
France final received the worldwide movie Oscar with Régis Wargnier’s Indochine in 1993.
Previous to Emila Pérez, Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables was the final French movie to make it by means of to the ultimate nomination stage in 2020, whereas Alice Diop’s Saint Omer and Tran Anh Hung’s The Style of Issues made it onto the shortlist.
The nation’s filmmakers have additionally loved success exterior of the Greatest Worldwide Characteristic Movie class, with Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall having fun with a buzzy 2023-24 season after which profitable the Greatest Authentic Screenplay Oscar.
The deadline for submission to the Greatest Worldwide Characteristic Movie class of the 98th Academy Awards is October 1. Try our entries roundup right here.
