After his past seven years in the spotlight, Dolan said he has learned to separate valuable critiques from personal attacks on himself and his films.
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“The world is at a risky point, with austerity driven by the ideals of neo-liberalism that have brought us to near-catastrophe, that have brought hardship to many in Greece in the east and Portugal and Spain in the west, and grotesque wealth to a few”, Loach said.
He admitted the win in Cannes came as “a relief” after his film received some harsh criticisms from journalists earlier in the week.
The awards night of the 69th Cannes Film Festival was a triumph for British cinema with the other United Kingdom title in the Competition, Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey”, winning the Jury Prize.
This time, the award was all his own.
The 2016 Cannes Film Festival jury was headed by “Mad Max” director George Miller, and also included actors Donald Sutherland and Mads Mikkelsen, actresses Kirsten Dunst, Valeria Golino and Vanessa Paradis, directors Laszlo Nemes and Arnaud Desplechin and producer Katayoon Shahabi.
“So you just tell one little story, one of the consequences of the many millions of people, tell one little story, and you just hope it connects, it connects to people”.
“Thank you for feeling the emotion of the film”, he said, choking up as the booing continued from critics across the hallway. You see it in the way they humiliated the Greek people. “It is an unoriginal thing to say, but it is what it is. So that’s how I feel, right here, right now”.
In another boost for British independent cinema, American Honey, an expressionistic road movie by the Kent-born director Andrea Arnold, won the Jury Prize – the festival’s de facto bronze medal, which is often presented to hard or divisive work.
“To call Ken’s films just political is, in my view, a misnomer – because this film has got tremendous heart, it deals with the human cost of austerity”, she said.
To call Dolan’s win a surprise would be an understatement. The movie received bad reviews when it opened and most expected it to walk away empty handed. But Ade and her film were shut out of the winner’s circle. “We are really stunned”.
The Jury Prize (i.e., third place) was awarded to Andrea Arnold, the British filmmaker who cast unknown actress Sasha Lane opposite Shia LaBeouf in her wild tale about at-risk teenagers experimenting with sex, drugs, and Rihanna, American Honey.
The best director prize was shared by Romania s Cristian Mungiu for his drama “Graduation” about the moral rot of corruption in a post-communist society, and France s Olivier Assayas for his supernatural thriller “Personal Shopper” with Hollywood phenomenon Kristen Stewart.
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Despite mixed reviews, director Asghar Farhadi’s film “The Salesman” picked up several awards including best screenplay and best actor for Shahab Hosseini.
