Cannes 2016: Ken Loach’s ‘I, Daniel Blake’ takes the Palme d’Or

After 12 days of glorious cinema in the South of France (read all of our coverage right here), and 21 films in competition as part of the official selection, tonight head of the Cannes Jury George Miller announced the winners of the festival, including the prestigious Palme d’Or for best in show.

Ken Loach’s superb I, Daniel Blake, which we reviewed here, won the British director his second Plame d’Or – he won back in 2006 for the first time with The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

In our review we said that the film’s lead actor, comedian Dave Johns, ‘is near perfect in his portrayal of his character, a humble, grieving, decent man with only help to give and nothing to take from the state unnecessarily. Hayley Squires matches that performance with Katie, a single mother who many will obviously identify with, and her turn in practically flawless. In the film generally, there is a character or situation in which we can all identify; another quality of Loach’s supreme film-making skills.’

‘I, Daniel Blake is perhaps one of Loach’s best from recent years, and certainly one of the most witty, honest, and impactful dramas we’ve seen of late. It is also realistic, alarming and fury inducing. A true highlight of Cannes so far.’

It’s a deserved win, and one we’re absolutely delighted with. Read our full review here.

Check out the winners in full below, as well as the winners of the festival’s parallel section, Un Certain Regard where Juho Kuosmanen’s The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki bagged the top prize, Prize of Un Certain Regard and Fukada Kôji’s Harmonium won the Jury Prize. What was also excellent was that Matt Ross won the prize for Best Director for the superb Captain Fantastic, perhaps our favourite from the festival, and Michael Dudok de Wit’s feature animation, The Red Turtle, won the special award.

Competition Winners

Palme d’Or
Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake

Grand Prix
Xavier Dolan, It’s Only The End Of The World

Best Director
TIE-WIN
Cristian Mungiu, Graduation
Olivier Assayas, Personal Shopper

Best Screenplay
Asghar Farhadi, The Salesman

Best Actress
Jaclyn Jose, Ma’Rosa

Jury Prize
American Honey, dir: Andrea Arnold

Best Actor
Shahab Hosseini, The Salesman

Palme d’Honneur
Jean-Pierre Léaud

Caméra d’Or
Divines, dir: Uda Benyamina

Short Film Palme d’Or
Timecode, dir: Juanjo Gimenez

Special Mention
The Girl Who Danced With The Devil, dir: Joao Paulo Miranda Mar

Un Certain Regard winners

Prize of Un Certain Regard
HYMYILEVÄ MIES
(The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki)
by Juho Kuosmanen

Jury Prize
FUCHI NI TATSU
(Harmonium)
by Fukada Kôji

Prize for Best Director
Matt Ross
for CAPTAIN FANTASTIC

Prize for Best Screenplay
Delphine Coulin & Muriel Coulin
for VOIR DU PAYS (The Stopover)

Un Certain Regard Special Prize
LA TORTUE ROUGE
(The Red Turtle)
by Michael Dudok de Wit