Screening times:
Sunday, March 1, 7:30 PM

Jafar Panahi | Iran, France, Luxembourg | 2025 | 102m
Persian with English subtitles

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been arrested, imprisoned, and banned by the Iranian regime for making films. In the face of more prosecution he reaffirms his status as one of the world's greatest filmmakers with this morality tale that won him the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. This film is nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film at the 2026 Academy Awards.

Panahi continues to make his films in secret, defying the edict that he cease and desist. It Was Just An Accident is his newest and perhaps most deeply political work, a thriller about a mechanic, Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri), who crosses paths with a man he believes is the government intelligence officer, Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), who tortured him, leaving him with lifelong pain. Vahid abducts Eghbal, but before he takes his revenge he connects with fellow survivors of the regime's cruelties. The question of this man's identity and what they should do about him forces them all to face what kind of world they want to live in. 

"It’s a film of overwhelmingly visceral emotion; impossible, then, to separate from what we imagine Panahi must feel himself." - Clarisse Loughrey, Independent (UK)

"It Was Just an Accident is terrific, nothing less than cinema as national conscience."- David Sexton, New Statesman

"Iran's Jafar Panahi is a unique and unforgettable world-class film artist who aches for justice for his traumatized characters, of which he is one. This is a cry from his bruised heart." - Peter Travers, The Travers Take

Winner: Palme d'Or, Prix de la Citoyenneté - Cannes Film Festival, 2025
Winner: Sydney Film Prize - Sydney Film Festival, 2025
Winner: Best Film, Best Director - Asia Pacific Screen Awards, 2025
Winner: Best Director - New York Film Critics Circle, 2026

Tickets $12 ($11.40 cash at the door if available)