Cannes 2025; X users: Award was given to a director who depicted a negative image of Iran and said nothing about suffering of Palestinians!

Pars Today - This year's Cannes Palme d'Or was awarded to a director whose work, according to critics, smears Iran's image.

The awarding of the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or to Jafar Panahi's political, anti-Iranian, and slogan-filled film “It Was Just an Accident” was met with many reactions. In this Pars Today article, we examine some of the reactions from X social media users.

Why Silence on the Gaza Massacre?

Abdolreza Davari, a political economy researcher, tweeted: Jafar Panahi, who considers himself a global filmmaker, blackened his own country's image as much as he could during his Palme d'Or acceptance speech at Cannes. Yet, he did not express regret in even a single sentence for Israel's massacre and genocide in Gaza, which, of course, if he were to have done so, they would never have given him the Palme d'Or award.

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Another user, Babak Ghaffari, wrote: Few people are unaware of the international awards mafia, especially its French variety. The cold public reaction also shows how ''once bitten, twice shy'' people have become since the time of this Kiarostami photo until now. But regarding Jafar Panahi and his message, the important point is that they want to falsely announce to the world, through him, that Iranians are divided.

Panahi marks the decline of the Cannes Film Festival's artistic standing

Samaneh Najafi wrote in an X social media post: The fact that the Cannes Film Festival award goes from very good films to ''Jafar Panahi'' actually means the festival's credibility is in decline and doesn't really need analysis for the reasons behind these kinds of choices and recent events!

Cannes 2025: History repeats itself

In another tweet, Kaveh Qoreishi wrote: The Cannes Festival has always been rightly political. Yilmaz Güney, the prominent Kurdish artist, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 for his film ''Yol'' (The Road). Güney filmed parts of 'The Road' while still imprisoned; he wrote the screenplay in prison and directed from there. The final version was edited after his escape.

Shame on the traitor

Tahereh Javadi, an X social media user, wrote in a critical tweet: Anyone who wants to sell something makes it appear good, valuable, and desirable in the buyer's eyes – except for a traitor. When a traitor wants to sell their homeland to a foreigner, they first make their country appear lowly, worthless, and flawed, and then they sell it to the foreigner for a paltry sum... So, eternal shame on the traitor.

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