The winners of the 78th Cannes Film Festival were announced Saturday night.
After a power outage threatened to delay Saturday’s closing ceremonies of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, the event at the Grand Théâtre Lumière went off without a hitch.
The Competition jury, which was led this year by French actor Juliette Binoche, also included American actors Halle Berry and Jeremy Strong, Italian actor Alba Rohrwacher, French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, and directors Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sang-soo, Payal Kapadia and Carlos Reygadas. It was they who decided the Festival’s best and the brightest, in a year when a number of films generated buzz (and opened the pocketbooks of distributors).
Honorees included Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, who wasn’t at the ceremony—but was still named best actor for his role in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s political thriller The Secret Agent. In a Cannes rarity, it also took home a second award for best director.
Other winners included Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose It Was Just an Accident won the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, just days after distribution company Neon picked up the American rights for the film.
Full list of all the winners at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival:
Palme d’Or
Jafar Panahi — It Was Just an Accident
Grand Prix
Joachim Trier — Sentimental Value
Jury Prize
Tie: Mascha Schilinski — Sound of Falling; Oliver Laxe — Sirat
Best Director
Kleber Mendonça Filho — The Secret Agent
Best Screenplay
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne— Young Mothers
Best Actress
Nadia Melliti —The Little Sister
Best Actor
Wagner Moura — The Secret Agent
Special Prize
Bi Gan — Resurrection
Camera d’Or for Best First Film
Hassan Hadi — The President’s Cake
Palme d’Or for Best Short Film
Tawfeek Barhom — I’m Glad You’re Dead Now
