Ken Loach wins second Palme d’Or

The final awards ceremony of the 69th Cannes Film Festival concluded, with veteran British filmmaker Ken Loach winning the second Palme d’Or of his career for the impassioned protest drama “I, Daniel Blake”.

The film, chronicling the social-welfare battle fought by a struggling Newcastle carpenter, scored a strong emotional reaction from Cannes audiences when it unspooled early in the festival — though many critics were more reserved in their praise. This year’s jury, led by “Mad Max” director George Miller, evidently voted with their hearts, handing the 79-year-old Loach the festival’s top honor exactly 10 years after his Irish historical drama “The Wind That That Shakes the Barley” landed the prize.

Accepting the award onstage, Loach said, “Film can bring us the world of the imagination. But it can also bring us the world that we live in…We must give a message of hope. We must say that another world is possible, and necessary.”

Loach now joins an elite group of two-time Palme champs, including Michael Haneke, Francis Ford Coppola, Emir Kusturica, Bille August, Shohei Imamura, Alf Sjoberg and Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.

Miller’s jury – consisting Kirsten Dunst, Donald Sutherland, and Vanessa Paradis, diverged from critical consensus in many of their decisions, beginning with the complete shut-out of German filmmaker Maren Ade’s moving father-daughter comedy “Toni Erdmann” — a film that topped most of this year’s festival critics’ polls by a significant margin, and was named the best in Competition yesterday by the FIPRESCI critics’ jury.

Among the other films honored was 27-year-old Canadian auteur Xavier Dolan’s “It’s Only the End of the World”, which took the night’s second most prestigious honor, the Grand Prix. The high-pitched dysfunctional family drama premiered earlier this week to a chorus of boos at its press screening, followed by largely scathing reviews.

On a good night for British cinema, iconoclastic writer-director Andrea Arnold won the Jury Prize for her youthful, unruly, music-filled Midwestern road movie “American Honey” — her first US-set production.

The best actress contest had been viewed as a particularly competitive one this year. The field was so deep this year that the jury managed to blindside virtually every punter with their choice of winner — a stunned Jaclyn Jose, the Filipino star of Brillante Mendoza’s “Ma ‘Rosa”. Best actor, meanwhile, went to Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini for Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman”. The film also landed Farhadi the best screenplay award — making it the only multiple winner of the night.

The night’s one tie came with the best director prize, which was jointly presented to Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu for his well-received society study “Graduation”, and Frenchman Olivier Assayas for “Personal Shopper”, an unorthodox ghost story starring Kristen Stewart.

The full list of winners below:

COMPETITION

Palme d’Or: “I, Daniel Blake” (Ken Loach, U.K.)

Grand Prix: “It’s Only the End of the World” (Xavier Dolan, Canada-France)

Director (tie): Olivier Assayas, “Personal Shopper” (France), and Cristian Mungiu, “Graduation” (Romania)

Actor: Shahab Hosseini, “The Salesman” (Iran)

Actress: Jaclyn Jose, “Ma ‘Rosa” (Philippines)

Jury Prize: Andrea Arnold, “American Honey” (U.K.-U.S.)

Screenplay: Asghar Farhadi, “The Salesman” (Iran)

OTHER PRIZES

Palme d’Honneur: Jean-Pierre Léaud

Camera d’Or: “Divines” (Houda Benyamina, France-Qatar)

Short Films Palme d’Or: “Timecode” (Juanjo Jimenez, Spain)

Special Mention – Short Films Palme d’Or: “The Girl Who Danced With the Devil” (Joao Paulo Miranda Maria, Brazil)

Ecumenical Jury Prize: “It’s Only the End of the World” (Xavier Dolan, Canada-France)

UN CERTAIN REGARD

Un Certain Regard Prize: “The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki” (Juho Kuosmanen, Finland)

Jury prize: “Harmonium” (Koji Fukada, Japan)

Director: Matt Ross, “Captain Fantastic” (United States)

Screenplay: Delphine and Muriel Coulin, “The Stopover” (France)

Special Jury Prize: Michael Dudok de Wit, “The Red Turtle” (France-Japan)

DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT

Art Cinema Award: “Wolf and Sheep” (Shahrbanoo Sadat)

Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “The Together Project” (Solveig Anspach)

Europa Cinemas Label: “Mercernary” (Sacha Wolff)

CRITICS’ WEEK

Grand Prize: “Mimosas” (Oliver Saxe)

Visionary Prize: “Album” (Mehmet Can Mertoğlu)

Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize: “Diamond Island” (Day Chou)

FIPRESCI

Competition: “Toni Erdmann” (Maren Ade, Germany-Austria)

Un Certain Regard: “Dogs” (Bogdan Mirică, Romania-France)

Critics’ Week: “Raw” (Julia Ducournau, France-Belgium)

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Source: Variety