Ken Loach Receives Master of Cinema at the Atlàntida Film Festival, Mallorca

British director Ken Loach was honoured as the star guest and honorary patron of the 9th Atlàntida Film Festival in Mallorca, one of Spain’s most distinctive European film events, run by streaming platform Filmin. At the opening gala on 2 July at Bellver Castle, Loach received the Master of Cinema Award, a career honour previously given to Vanessa Redgrave and Roland Joffé, in recognition of a body of work defined by unflinching social commitment.

Loach, one of only nine directors to have won the Palme d’Or at Cannes twice (The Wind That Shakes the Barley, 2006; I, Daniel Blake, 2016), also gave a masterclass and oversaw a retrospective of 15 of his films. The evening was made all the more remarkable by the presence of Queen Letizia of Spain. On 1 July, the festival screened a remastered print of Loach’s debut film Kes (1969), which marks its 50th anniversary that year, at the CineCiutat cinema in Palma.