Jeremy Strong did not hold back while sharing his thoughts on serving as a member of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival competition jury.
“I feel immeasurably inspired by what I’ve seen here,” Strong, 46, said during a Saturday, May 24, press conference, per Variety. “It’s been so invigorating, and this sort of cumulative tally of the work I’ll carry with me.”
Strong, who served under president Juliette Binoche, made the comment after Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident was awarded with the coveted Palme d’Or. (Actors Halle Berry and Alba Rohrwacher; directors Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sang-soo, Payal Kapadia and Carlos Reygadas and writer Leïla Slimani were also members of the jury.)
“This has been a really wonderful experience, a really connected experience with these people — it’s like Conclave with champagne,” Strong continued. “It’s really great.”
Strong’s remark references the 2024 film, which was based on Robert Harris’ novel of the same name and took home an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. (Conclave follows a papal election process after the sudden death of a pope, starring the likes of Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow.)
In the Sunday press conference, Binoche detailed the reasoning behind awarding the top prize to It Was Just an Accident. The film centers around a group of former prisoners in Iran who debate whether to kill or forgive a man believed to be their torturous guard. (It Was Just an Accident marked Panahi’s first movie since being released from prison in 2023.)
“It’s very human and political at the same time because he comes from a complicated country, politically speaking,” Binoche said. “When we watched the film, it really stood out. The film springs from a feeling of resistance, survival, which is absolutely necessary today. So we thought it was important to give this film the paramount award. Art will always win. What is human will always win. Our creative urge can transform the world.”
Strong, for his part, noted that the jury “wanted to recognize films that we felt were transcendent intrinsically as pieces of work.” The Succession star went on to quote playwright Henrik Ibsen.
“Ibsen talked about, ‘Deep inside, there’s a poem in a poem. And when you hear that, when you grasp that, you will understand my song,’” Strong said. “And I feel that this film and the other films have these poems within the poem that allow us to grasp something ineffable that have changed me.”
