Jafar Panahi receives the FIPRESCI Platinum Award at the 30th anniversary Sofia Film Festival

"It Was Just an Accident" – with two Oscar nominations

The latest film by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, "It Was Just an Accident", which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, has also been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in the US – it has been nominated in the categories Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay.

Jafar Panahi is a friend of the Sofia Film Festival and was a special guest at the festival in 2002 and 2004. In 2021, he received the Sofia Award for his contribution to the art of cinema, and in the anniversary year of the SIFF, he will be decorated with the prestigious FIPRESCI Platinum Award, presented by the International Federation of Film Critics.

The France's entry in the Oscar nominations, "It Was Just an Accident" follows a man, his pregnant wife, and their daughter who are involved in a car accident, and it transforms into a series of events with important personal and social consequences.

Panahi is an iconic figure of the Iranian "New Wave." His socially engaged films explore themes such as repression, social injustice, and restrictions on freedom in Iran. Despite numerous arrests and bans, he continues to make films that raise acute social and political questions. Immediately after the Iranian government issued its latest sentence against him, he dedicated several of the awards for his film to "the creators who continue to shoot in silence, without support, often risking everything they have for their belief in truth and humanity."

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