KEN LOACH TAKES PALME D’OR AT CANNES

Manohla Dargis reports in the New York Times that British director Ken Loach took the top honor of Palme d’Or at the 69th edition of the Cannes Film Festival yesterday for his film I, Daniel Blake. The film’s story centers on a carpenter with a heart condition facing an impenetrable bureaucracy. This is not the first time Loach has won this prize at Cannes; his 2006 film The Wind That Shakes the Barley, set during the Irish War of Independence and the subsequent Irish Civil War, won the Palme d’Or that year as well.

The jury for this year’s feature competition was led by George Miller and included Arnaud Desplechin, Laszlo Nemes, Katayoon Shahabi, Kirsten Dunst, Valeria Golino, Mads Mikkelsen, Vanessa Paradis, and Donald Sutherland.

The ceremony where Loach received his award also included a tribute to French actor Jean-Pierre Léaud, best known for playing Antoine Doinel in François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, with an honorary Palme d’Or presented to him by Desplechin. Among the other recipients, Shahab Hosseini received the best actor award for his role in Asghar Farhadi’s film The Salesman, and the prize for best actress was awarded to Jaclyn Jose for her role in Ma’ Rosa, directed by the Philippine filmmaker Brillante Mendoza. The best director prize was jointly given to the Romanian director Cristian Mungiu and to the French director Olivier Assayas. The jury prize went to the British director Andrea Arnold for her film American Honey; Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan won the Grand Prix for It’s Only the End of the World; and Finnish director Juho Kuosmanen took home the Un Certain Regard prize for The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki_.