This is no accident … you’ll soon be able to see 2025 Palme d’Or winner “It Was Just an Accident” in theaters on Oct. 15.
Neon picked up Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s latest movie — “یک تصادف ساده,” — out of the Cannes Film Festival last month, marking their sixth consecutive acquisition of the French event’s top film.
“Inspired by Panahi’s second Iranian incarceration, ‘It Was Just an Accident’ follows what begins as a minor accident as it sets in motion a series of escalating consequences,” according to Neon’s Wednesday press release.
Panahi spent almost 20 years in prison or under house arrest in Iran for making films that the country deemed to be anti-government propaganda. After winning the Caméra d’Or in 1995 for “The White Balloon,” the director was able to attend Cannes this year despite a 20-year ban on making movies in 2010 and an additional prison sentence in 2022.
In his positive review of the film, Steve Pond wrote that “the bracing thing about ‘It Was Just an Accident’ is that it has married Panahi’s wit and humanism with real anger; if many of his previous films lulled you into realizing his points about oppression and injustice, this one is downright confrontational, from the moment its action begins with a man driving away from a city in the dead of night and accidentally hitting and killing a dog.”
Writer/director Panahi produced the film alongside Philippe Martin, with Sandrine Dumas and Christel Henon as co-producers and David Thion and Lilina Eche as associate producers. The film was a Les Films Pelléas and Jafar Panahi production from Iran/France and Luxembourg, with mk2 Films representing international rights.
Neon previously worked with Panahi on “The Year of the Everlasting Storm,” which played as a Cannes Special Screening in 2021. The independent film production and distribution company famously also brought recent Palme d’Or winners “Anora,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Titane” and “Parasite” to American audiences.
“It Was Just an Accident” arrives in theaters on Oct. 15.