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 Pan

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