The dissident Iranian film-maker, Jafar Panahi, has won the prestigious Palme d’Or – the prize for the best film at the Cannes Film Festival.

It Was Just An Accident – in which five people believe they’ve found the prosecutor who tortured them – is based on his own experiences of being in prison.

Accepting his award, he urged the Iranian people to put their differences aside and ensure the freedom of their country.

The jury – chaired by the French actress Juliette Binoche – gave the runner-up Grand Prix to the Norwegian director Joachim Trier, for Sentimental Value, about a film-maker trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter by casting her in a very personal film.

Kleber Mendonça Filho was named the best director for Brazilian drama The Secret Agent, whose star Wagner Moura won the best actor award, for playing a father who hides his identity to try to avoid assassination.

The best actress prize went to Nadia Melliti, for playing a Paris teenager, considering her sexuality in her conservative immigrant community, in Little Sister.

Long-time Cannes favourites, Belgium’s Dardenne brothers, were given the best screenplay honours for Young Mothers.

The third-place award, the Jury Prize, was shared between Spain’s Sirat and Sound of Falling from Germany. A special prize was handed to the Chinese director Bi Gan for his anthology project, Resurrection.

The Iraqi director Hasan Hadi won the Camera d’Or trophy, for the best first feature, The President’s Cake.

There was some British success in the more arthouse second-string competition, Un Certain Regard, whose top prize went to Diego Céspedes for The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo. Frank Dillane was names the best actor in the strand for Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut, Urchin, while Harry Lighton’s Pillion won him the best screenplay prize. Un Certain Regard gave its best director award to the Palestinian film, Once Upon a Time in Gaza.