A middle aged carpenter who requires state welfare after injuring himself, and is joined by a single mother in a similar scenario.
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Reflecting on winning the prize for a second time, Mr Loach said it was “extraordinary” because it was “the same little gang” from 2006.
The festival’s judging panel, or jury, this year included Sienna Miller, Kirsten Dunst, Donald Sutherland, Mads Mikkelsen, Arnaud Desplechin, Valeria Golino, Laszlo Nemes, Vanessa Paradis, and Katayoon Shahabi.
The 79-year-old director and veteran left-wing activist took the top accolade at the global film festival for his story of a former Newcastle joiner who struggles in the welfare system after becoming ill.
“When there is despair, the people from the far right take advantage”, said Loach.
“I’m very happy to be here with people that I love and with whom we made a film that I’m very proud of, and that, for me, is my best film yet”.
A total of 21 films, including three Asian films, were selected among the 1,869 films in April to compete for the top prize Palme d’Or of this annual film event.
“The world we live in is at a unsafe point just now”, said Loach as he picked up the award.
“I, Daniel Blake” is a story of a man who revolt against the neoliberal view of the government towards the economics polices where the bourgeois private corporations are sealing the fate of modern man and Ken Loach through the movie termed the view as ‘catastrophe’. This was Loach’s 13th appearance in the Cannes Competition. He took the Grand Prize, which is the runner-up to the Golden Palm.
The best actor prize was awarded to Shahab Hosseini, the star of Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman.
It was a tie in the Best Director category, with Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu (Graduation) and Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper) sharing the honour.
Jean-Pierre Leaud, one of the most famous faces of the French New Wave, received the “Palme d’Or d’Honneur”, a lifetime achievement award.
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Houda Benyamina’s “Divines” about a young French teenage girl from a tough immigrant suburb got the nod for best first film, the Camera d’Or. The prize for best actress, however, ultimately went to the unknown Filipino Jaclyn Jose for her leading performance as a small-time drug dealer in Brillante Mendoza’s typically no-budget drama Ma’ Rosa.
