'I, Daniel Blake' wins Cannes' Palme d'Or as a jury goes its own way

‘I, Daniel Blake’ wins Cannes’ Palme d’Or as a jury goes its own way

May 22, 2016 5:29 PM PT

5:27 P.M. REPORTING FROM CANNES, FRANCE

‘I, Daniel Blake’ wins Cannes’ Palme d’Or as a jury goes its own way

British director Ken Loach with his trophy after winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. (Loic Venance / AFP/Getty Images) — British director Ken Loach with his trophy after winning the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. (Loic Venance / AFP/Getty Images)

It’s not always noted, but there are two Cannes film festivals, one composed of critics, journalists and industry professionals, and the other inhabited by the sequestered jury. Sometimes these two Cannes speak with one voice, but in this 69th festival, they definitely did not.

The German film “Toni Erdmann,” directed by Maren Ade, one of the few women in the competition, was easily the non-jury favorite among the 21 films eligible for prizes.

Both wildly raucous and movingly humane, it chronicles the evolving relationship between a prankster father and his high-powered careerist daughter. Far from winning a top prize, however, “Toni Erdmann” was totally shut out by the jury chaired by “Mad Max” director George Miller.

Instead, the Palme d’Or went to 79-year-old British filmmaker Ken Loach for “I, Daniel Blake,” the on-the-nose narrative of working-class folks getting the run around from an unfeeling government welfare bureaucracy.