A moving film about a sick man’s struggle in austerity-hit UK by British director Ken Loach won the Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday.

The movie, I, Daniel Blake, tells the story of a former Newcastle joiner who struggles in the welfare system after becoming ill.

It was the director’s second award for best picture at the French festival after 2006's The Wind That Shakes the Barley.

Blake beat favourites including the German comedy Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade and Jim Jarmusch's Paterson starring Adam Driver as a poetry-writing bus driver. 

The runner-up Grand Prix award went to Canada's Xavier Dolan, for his family drama It's Only the End of the World.

Britain also claimed the third-place Jury prize, for Andrea Arnold's American Honey starring Shia LaBeouf.

Among other winners, Philippine star Jaclyn Jose won best actress in Brillante Mendoza's Ma Rosa as a mother selling drugs to survive who falls prey to corrupt police.

Iran's Shahab Hosseini clinched best actor for Asghar Farhadi's moral drama The Salesman

Twenty-one films were in competition for the prestigious Palme d'Or, which was designed and crafted by Swiss watch and jewellery house Chopard.