The 79-year-old British director and veteran left-wing activist took the top accolade for his latest film I, Daniel Blake – the story of a former Newcastle joiner who struggles in the welfare system after becoming ill.
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Jury member Laszlo Nemes, who won the Grand Prix a year ago for Son of Saul, said Dolan’s film struck him as very personal: “When it started, you could feel the very specific voice of the director”.
As Loach accepted his prize, he punched his fists in the air and said he hoped his social realist film would bring a message of hope.
The festival was one of the most political in recent years with Loach warning that Europe’s tough fiscal austerity was fueling the threat of the far right.
‘The world we live in is at a risky point right now, ‘ he said. This is the second time that Loach has won the coveted trophy for the best movie, having clinched it in 2006 for his brilliant Irish civil war drama, The Wind that Shakes the Barley. With the 2016 honour, he becomes only the ninth filmmaker to win the prestigious award twice.
Canadian director Xavier Dolan, who won the Jury Prize with Mommy in 2014, received the Grand Prix for his Juste la Fin du Monde (It’s Only the End of the World). Arnold’s first US feature film stars Shia LaBeouf, Riley Keough and Sasha Lane.
The Best Director award was shared by Olivier Assayas for “Personal Shopper” and Cristian Mungiu for “Graduation”.
Farhadi won The Best Screenplay Award, and his actor Shahab Hosseini won the Best Actor Award.
In his 19 appearances at Cannes, Loach has also won three Jury Prizes for The Angels’ Share – another comedy – in 2012, Raining Stones in 1993, and Hidden Agenda in 1990.
That film went home empty-handed at a ceremony in the Grand Theatre Lumiere on Sunday evening, as did other well-received films like Jim Jarmusch’s quiet “Paterson”, Park Chan-wook’s wildly stylish “The Handmaiden”, Kleber Mendonca Filho’s character study “Aquarius”, Cristi Puiu’s slowly paced “Sieranevada” and Paul Verhoeven’s transgressive “Elle”. Make no mistake, I liked the film and thought it certainly worth something from Australian George Miller’s jury.
It was Mel Gibson who presented the award to Loach.
Loach has long brought his distinct portrayals of the British working class to Cannes – and is more a regular at Cannes than nearly any filmmaker.
But it wasn’t just Loach who caused United Kingdom cheers, with Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, backed by the BFI and Film4, winning the jury prize, the third time the director has come away with the award. Jaclyn Jose took the best actress prize for playing a small-time drug dealer caught by a corrupt police force in the Filipino film Ma’Rosa, from director Brillante Mendoza.
“We judged each film on its merits.it really didn’t come up”, he said. While the film did not win Stewart the Best Actress prize, it did get Assayas the Best Director nod.
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Given the abundance of female directors and stars at the 69th festival, the press corps wondered how that impacted the jury’s decision making process.
