Director Jafar Panahi, Palme d’Or award winner for the film “Un simple accident” (It Was Just an Accident), reacts, during the closing ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 24, 2025. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

Revenge thriller “It Was Just An Accident” by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who was last at the Cannes Film Festival in person more than 20 years ago, won the Palme d’Or top prize on Saturday.

Panahi, who has been arrested several times for his filmmaking and was under a travel ban until recently, last attended the festival in person in 2003, when “Crimson Gold” was screened in the Un Certain Regard category.

“Art mobilizes the creative energy of the most precious, most alive part of us. A force that transforms darkness into forgiveness, hope and new life,” said jury president Juliette Binoche when announcing the award.

“It Was Just An Accident” follows Vahid, played by Vahid Mobasseri, who kidnaps a man with a false leg who looks just like the one who tortured him in prison and ruined his life.

Vahid sets out to verify with other prison survivors that it is indeed their torturer – and then decide what to do with him.

An emotional Panahi, wearing sunglasses on stage, thanked his cast and film crew during his acceptance speech.

The Grand Prix, the second-highest prize after the Palme d’Or, was awarded to “Sentimental Value” from acclaimed director Joachim Trier.

The jury prize was split between the intergenerational family drama “Sound of Falling” from German director Mascha Schilinski and “Sirat,” about a father and son who head into the Moroccan desert, by French-Spanish director Oliver Laxe.

Brazil’s “The Secret Agent” won two awards, one for best actor for Wagner Moura, as well as best director for Kleber Mendonca Filho.

“I was having Champagne,” said Mendonca Filho after he ran up to the stage to collect his award after celebrating Moura, who previously made a name for himself in hit TV series “Narcos.”

Newcomer Nadia Melliti took home best actress for “The Little Sister,” a queer coming-of-age story centered around the daughter of Algerian immigrants in Paris.

Belgium’s Dardenne brothers, who have the rare honor of already having won two Palme d’Or prizes, took home the award for best screenplay for their film “Young Mothers.”

Twenty-two films in total were competing for the prize at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, with entries from well-known directors Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson and Ari Aster.

Saturday’s closing ceremony officially ends the glamour-filled festival that began on May 13.

The post ‘It Was Just An Accident’ by Iran’s Jafar Panahi Wins Cannes’ Top Prize first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

US President Trump speaks to the media at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, Washington, DC, April 21, 2025. Photo: Andrew Leyden/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect

A US judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from revoking Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign students, a policy the Ivy League school called part of President Donald Trump’s broader effort to retaliate against it for refusing to “surrender its academic independence.”

The order provides temporary relief to thousands of international students who were faced with being forced to transfer under a policy that the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university called a “blatant violation” of the US Constitution and other federal laws, and said would have an “immediate and devastating effect” on the university and more than 7,000 visa holders.

“Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the 389-year-old school said in its lawsuit filed earlier on Friday in Boston federal court. Harvard enrolled nearly 6,800 international students in its current school year, equal to 27% of total enrollment.

The move was the latest escalation in a broader battle between Harvard and the White House, as Trump seeks to compel universities, law firms, news media, courts and other institutions that value independence from partisan politics to align with his agenda. Trump and fellow Republicans have long accused elite universities of left-wing bias.

Harvard has pushed back hard against Trump, having previously sued to restore nearly $3 billion in federal grants that had been frozen or canceled. In recent weeks, the administration has proposed ending Harvard’s tax-exempt status and hiking taxes on its endowment, and opened an investigation into whether it violated civil rights laws.

Leo Gerden, a Swedish student set to graduate Harvard with an undergraduate degree in economics and government this month, called the judge’s ruling a “great first step” but said international students were bracing for a long legal fight that would keep them in limbo.

“There is no single decision by Trump or by Harvard or by a judge that is going to put an end to this tyranny of what Trump is doing,” Gerden said.

In its complaint, Harvard said the revocation would force it to retract admissions for thousands of people, and has thrown “countless” academic programs, clinics, courses and research laboratories into disarray, just a few days before graduation. It said the revocation was a punishment for Harvard’s “perceived viewpoint,” which it called a violation of the right to free speech as guaranteed by the US Constitution’s First Amendment.

The Trump administration may appeal US District Judge Allison Burroughs’ ruling. In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “unelected judges have no right to stop the Trump Administration from exercising their rightful control over immigration policy and national security policy.”

Since Trump’s inauguration on January 20, his administration has accused several universities of indifference toward the welfare of Jewish students during widespread campus protests against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.

Harvard’s court challenges over the administration’s policies stand in contrast to its New York-based peer Columbia University’s concessions to similar pressure. Columbia agreed to reform disciplinary processes and review curricula for courses on the Middle East, after Trump pulled $400 million in funding over allegations the Ivy League school had not done enough to combat antisemitism.

In announcing on Thursday the termination of Harvard’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification, effective starting in the 2025-2026 academic year, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, without providing evidence, accused the university of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.”

Harvard says a fifth of its foreign students in 2024 were from China. US lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns about the influence of the Chinese government on US college campuses, including efforts by Beijing-directed Chinese student associations to monitor political activities and stifle academic speech.

The university says it is committed to combating antisemitism and investigating credible allegations of civil rights violations.

HARVARD DEFENDS ‘REFUSAL TO SURRENDER’

In her brief order blocking the policy for two weeks, Burroughs said Harvard had shown it could be harmed before there was an opportunity to hear the case in full. The judge, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, scheduled hearings for May 27 and May 29 to consider next steps in the case. Burroughs is also overseeing Harvard’s lawsuit over the grant funds.

Harvard University President Alan Garber said the administration was illegally seeking to assert control over the private university’s curriculum, faculty and student body.

“The revocation continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence,” Garber wrote in a letter on Friday to the Harvard community.

The revocation could also weigh on Harvard’s finances. At many US universities, international students are more likely to pay full tuition, essentially subsidizing aid for other students.

“It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.

Harvard’s bonds, part of its $8.2 billion debt pile, have been falling since Trump first warned US universities in March of cuts to federal funding.

International students enrolled at Harvard include Cleo Carney, daughter of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, and Princess Elisabeth, first in line to the Belgian throne.

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FILE PHOTO: A man, with an Israeli flag with a cross in the center, looks on next to police officers working at the site where, according to the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., U.S. May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

When Adam Zimmerman chaperoned his son’s fourth-grade class field trip to the natural history museum in Washington on Wednesday, he didn’t give a second thought to security.

Hours later, outside a different museum a few miles away, two Israeli embassy employees were gunned down in what was widely viewed as an act of antisemitism.

“It was a horrific reminder for me – as a Jewish parent in this city – that we all have to be looking over our shoulders all the time,” said Zimmerman, 43, a media consultant from Rockville, Maryland.

The fatal shooting of the young couple after an event at a Jewish museum has deeply shaken the US capital’s Jews, and has led to a review of security protocols at synagogues and other institutions.

“The same seeds of antisemitism that led to Europe in the 1930s and 1940s are still killing people on the streets of Washington, D.C. in 2025,” said Zimmerman, whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors.

It was the latest act of violence aimed at Jewish Americans linked to outrage over Israel’s escalating military offensive in Gaza, a response to the October 2023 attacks by Hamas militants that killed 1,200 in southern Israel.

The Washington shooting took place outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where the American Jewish Committee was sponsoring an annual young diplomats reception.

The lone suspect, who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Thursday, told police on the scene, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to court records.

Alan Ronkin, regional director of AJC’s Washington office, said security was tight at the event, even though the suspect, Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, managed to enter the museum in the chaos that ensued in the aftermath of the shooting outside. He was apprehended inside.

“We are going to revisit our security protocols, and make sure we follow the recommendations of the experts,” said Ronkin, who added the community is “shaken but resilient.”

Ron Halber, chief executive officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said that local law enforcement has increased patrols around Jewish institutions in Washington since the killings.

“A lot of us are looking over our shoulder today,” said Halber. “But we have to keep leading proud open Jewish lives. I’m certainly not going to let it deter me from any public or private event.”

Most Jewish institutions in the city already have robust security, including armed guards at most synagogues, according to Halber. “The big discussion that’s going to happen is how long does the perimeter extend – one block, two blocks,” he said.

“Every Jewish organization is increasing their security, whether it’s having more guards standing outside during more hours of the day, or if they didn’t have any, adding them,” said Gil Preuss, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.

“Right now it’s short term, and we’ll see whether there’s a permanent change in the level of security. My guess is yes.”

The federation is one of several Jewish institutions that said on Friday they were fundraising to bolster security. Local and federal grants, especially a nonprofit security grant program administered through the Federal Emergency Management Administration, are a “tremendous” help to offset the costs of security improvements, according to Preuss.

After some delays and confusion due to the Trump administration’s federal funding freezes in recent months, the program’s grant funding has started flowing again, he said.

About 50 Jewish organizations issued a statement on Thursday calling on the US Congress to increase funding under the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion, more than double the current figure.

‘DESIRE TO BE TOGETHER’

Sarah Krinsky, a rabbi at Adas Israel in Washington, said on Friday there were D.C. Metropolitan Police Department cars outside her synagogue, at the end of the block and at the base of the parking lot.

Krinsky said the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting that killed 11 worshipers in Pittsburgh first prompted Adas Israel to boost security significantly.

Since Wednesday’s attack, the Washington mayor’s office, police department, FBI and private firms have all recommended even higher levels of security.

She said the conservative congregation’s more than 3,500 members would welcome the “slight enhancements,” details of which she could not discuss.

With the shock of the shooting still raw, Krinsky said she expected a big crowd for Shabbat services this weekend.

“There’s a real desire to be together, and to be in a place where people can mourn and grieve and express everything they’re feeling and feel safe and held,” she said.

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