British director Ken Loach won the Palme d’Or with his moving tale of a carpenter (Dave Johns) who suffers repeated humiliations as he seeks welfare benefits after having a heart attack.
Canadian wunderkind Xavier Dolan's film was booed by some critics but the jury felt it deserved second place in Cannes for his fraught family drama. It is the latest in a string of Cannes honours for the 27-year-old director who won the third-placed Jury Prize in 2014 for Mommy.
Britain's Andrea Arnold came in third with American Honey, starring Shia LaBeouf as the leader of a group of disaffected US teens selling magazines door-to-door. A throbbing soundtrack accompanies the youths on their slow-paced road trip, with plenty of marijuana smoking, drinking and falling in love.
The Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini won best actor for his role as a man struggling to come to terms with an attack on his wife in their home. He sets out on a revenge mission while she tries to regain the upper hand and deal with the assault in her own manner.
Philippine soap star Jaclyn Jose won best actress for her mesmerising performance as a mother forced to sell drugs to survive before falling prey to corrupt police.
The best director award was shared between Romania’s Cristian Mungiu and France’s Olivier Assayas.
Mungiu shines a light on the post-communist social rot in his homeland in Graduation, about a father trying to ensure his daughter can escape Romania's corruption with a scholarship to a British university.
Assayas won for Personal Shopper starring Kristen Stewart, a movie that is an audacious mix of ghost story, murder mystery and existential drama. Critics, however, booed it.
The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who won an Oscar in 2012 for A Separation, won best screenplay for The Salesman.
