New York Film Festival 2025: ‘It Was Just An Accident:’ An Impressive, Thought-Provoking Cinematic Achievement

This year’s Cannes Palm d’Or winner and France’s International Feature Oscar entry, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, is easily one of the most acclaimed films of the year. And while I found it to be an impressive, thought-provoking achievement, It didn’t really push the biting and daring envelope that far. It may very well win the International Feature Oscar, which would mark France’s first win in 34 years, but that might be more politically motivated than aesthetically—which is fine, I guess…

The film opens with a couple and their daughter heading home at night when father accidentally runs over a dog. His daughter scolds him for killing the animal and the wife responds with, “It was just an accident.” The ‘accident’ has messed up the car’s engine so dad, Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi) stops off at a nearby warehouse for help. This is where the film’s befuddled lead takes center stage. Inside the warehouse, Vahid (Valid Mobasseri), hears Eghbal’s prominent squeaky limp and proceeds to follow him home. The next day, Vahid knocks Eghbal out, tosses him into his van and digs a hole where he plans to bury him alive. And he almost does until Eghbal plants the seed of doubt into Vahid’s mind.

And this is all just preamble to a story that will soon involve a whole slew of angry victims of a cruel and sadistic jailhouse guard known as Peg-leg. They include an apprehensive wedding photographer (Maryam Afshari), an intrepid bride (Hadis Pakbaten) and a perpetually pissed-off worker (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr)–all trying to figure out if they have the right man (they were blindfolded when they were tortured and, the bride, raped). And, if it is, if they should enact their revenge.

Yes, it’s all very compelling and, often, quite hilarious. And there’s a lot of tensions, trauma unpacking as well as an obvious and vehement criticism of Iran’s authoritarian regime. And moral questions are weighed over and over. But the stakes never felt high enough.

Panahi is an assured director, and he’s assembled an incredibly talented group of mostly non-professional actors—seriously, you’d never be able to tell who is trained and who isn’t.

The brave filmmaker has been arrested numerous times in Iran and was convicted of “propaganda against the state” in 2010. He was released after 3 months but was subjected to a 20-year filmmaking ban. He found a way to secretly continue to work and was arrested again in 2022, ironically for inquiring about the detention of two fellow filmmakers Mohammad Rasoulof (director of last year’s nominated International Feature, The Seed of the Sacred Fig) and Mustafa Aleahmad. He was sentenced to six years and served seven months. He made It Was Just an Accident in secret, without a filming permit from the Islamic Republic. He was then able to travel to France to work on post.

And in writing all that, I am almost convincing myself that he does deserve to be recognized with an Oscar. He’s certainly a filmmaking hero. The film will certainly be nominated for International Feature. You can bet your social media followers on it. And it may even be mentioned in the Best Picture, Director and Screenplay categories.

It Was Just an Accident is a NEON release and opens on October 15, 2025, at Film at Lincoln Center.