This image released by Neon shows, from left, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr as Hamid, Majid Panahi as Ali, Hadis Pakbaten as Goli, in a scene from "It Was Just An Accident." (Neon via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — France announced Wednesday that it has selected the Iranian director Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or-winning drama “It Was Just an Accident” as its submission to the Academy Awards.

The selection gives an Oscar pathway to a film that Iran was certain not to select itself. Panahi, who has spent much of the last 15 years either under house arrest, banned from travel or incarcerated, made “It Was Just an Accident," like his previous films, in his native Iran without government permission.

Only countries can make submissions for the Academy Awards best international category, a process that has drawn criticism for allowing authoritarian regimes to dictate which films are eligible for one of the most contested Oscars. A year ago, Germany submitted “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” by Panahi's friend and countryman, Mohammad Rasoulof. In April, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tweaked its rules to allow filmmakers with refugee or asylum status to be represented by a country not their own.

“It Was Just an Accident” is Panahi's first film since he was released from jail two years ago, following a hunger strike. He edited the film in France, co-financed it with a French company and, for the first time in more than a decade, traveled out of Iran to premiere the film in May at the Cannes Film Festival. There, it won the festival's top award and was acquired by Neon, which is planning an awards campaign.

“Let us join forces,” Panahi said when accepting the Palme d'Or. “No one should dare tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do or what we should not do. The cinema is a society. Nobody is entitled to tell what we should or refrain from doing.”

“It Was Just an Accident” is a revenge drama in which a group of former prisoners find the man they think could have been their torturer in prison. But because they were blindfolded while jailed, they struggle to be sure. Panahi drew from his own experience imprisoned in Tehran.

“It was the experience of all these people I met in prison, mixed with my own perception and experience,” Panahi said in an interview in Cannes. “The fact of never seeing the face of your interrogator is everyone’s experience.”

France selected Panahi's film over several shortlisted films including Richard Linklater's French-language ode to the New Wave, “Nouvelle Vague,” Rebecca Zlotowski's “A Private Life” and the animated feature “Arco.” In recent years, France has sometimes been slammed for its choices. It passed over Justine Triet's “Anatomy of a Fall” in 2023, though it was nominated for best picture, and skipped Céline Sciamma's acclaimed 2019 drama “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”

Despite having one of the most robust and respected film industries, France hasn't won the international Oscar since 1993 with “Indochine.”

The 98th Academy Awards will be presented on March 15, 2026, in Los Angeles.

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