Cannes 2016: Ken Loach wins Palme d'Or for I, Daniel Blake

09:45 • 23.05.16
Culture

British director Ken Loach's film I, Daniel Blake has won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival.

It was the 79-year-old's second award for best picture at the festival after 2006's The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

Loach attacked the "dangerous project of austerity" as he accepted the award for his film about a middle-aged widower and the UK welfare system.

Kent-born director Andrea Arnold won the competition's Jury Prize for her road movie American Honey.

Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan shot both films.

It was the 13th time that Loach, a social campaigner for most of his career and the director of more than 50 movies, has competed at the event.

I, Daniel Blake, which stars stand-up comedian Dave Johns in the title role, was written by long-time Loach collaborator Paul Laverty.

It documents what happens when an older man living in Newcastle has a heart attack and can no longer do his job.

He is declared fit for work, meaning his benefits are stopped, and he begins to go hungry.

Accepting the festival's top prize from actor Mel Gibson, Loach said: "We must give a message of hope, we must say another world is possible..

"The world we live in is at a dangerous point right now. We are in the grip of a dangerous project of austerity driven by ideas that we call neo-liberalism that have brought us to near catastrophe."

Loach told the press conference he was "quietly stunned" to have won the award with "the same little gang" from his first win in 2006.

Asked about his plans for the future, Loach gave nothing away, saying: "When you get very old you're just pleased to see the sunrise the next day, so we'll just take each day as it comes."

 

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