Cannes Film Festival: Golden Palm for Jafar Panahi

The Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival goes to Iranian director Jafar Panahi for his film "A Simple Accident," according to the jury chaired by French actress Juliette Binoche.

Panahi's film prevailed against 21 other films in competition. The Iranian has already won the top prizes at the Venice Film Festival and the Berlinale with previous films. In "A Simple Accident," he explores experiences in prison and the violence of the Iranian regime.

Berlin-based Mascha Schilinski received the Jury Prize for her film "Looking into the Sun." The 41-year-old shared the award with Oliver Laxe for "Sirât." The Grand Jury Prize, the festival's second most important award, went to Joachim Trier's "Sentimental Value." Kleber Mendonça Filho received the Best Director award for "O Secreto Agente." Bi Gan received a Special Jury Prize for "Resurrection."

The award for Best Actress went to Nadia Melliti for her role in "La Petite Dernière." Wagner Moura was honored as Best Actor for his role in "O Secreto Agente." Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne received the Best Screenplay award for "Jeunes Mères."

During the course of the day, a power outage caused disruption in Cannes and the surrounding area. The film festival was also affected. Screenings at the "Cineum," a multiplex cinema located outside the center, were interrupted. However, the festival palace itself has its own independent power supply. Operations therefore continued largely as normal. Organizers had already announced in the morning that the awards ceremony could go ahead as planned.

The French gendarmerie cited a nighttime fire at a power plant as the reason for the outage. A spokeswoman said the fire in the municipality of Tanneron was believed to have been deliberately set. The spokeswoman could not say whether there was a connection between the incident and the film festival.