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Ken Loach has created a diverse and illustrious career as a chronicler and poet of Britain's working classes. After studying law at Oxford, he branched out into the theatre, performing with a touring repertory company. This led to television, where in alliance with producer Tony Garnett he produced a series of docu-dramas, most notably the devastating CATHY COME HOME in 1966, which had an impact so massive that it led directly to a change in England's homeless laws. Loach made his feature debut with POOR COW the following year, and, in 1969, directed KES, widely considered one of the finest films ever made in Britain. The following two decades saw such critically-acclaimed films as THE GAMEKEEPER and LOOKS AND SMILES, as well as more TV work, some of which was never broadcast (most notoriously, his documentaries on the 1984 miners' strike).

Loach made stellar contributions to the cinema of the 1990s, with a series of award-winning films firmly establishing him in the pantheon of great European directors. HIDDEN AGENDA won the Special Jury Prize at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival; RIFF-RAFF won the Felix award for Best European Film of 1992; RAINING STONES won the Cannes Special Jury Prize for 1993, and LAND AND FREEDOM won the FIPRESCI International Critics Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival and was a substantial box-office hit in Spain where it sparked intense debate about its look at fascism. MY NAME IS JOE, a romance between a former alcoholic and community health worker in a tough Glasgow neighborhood, which won Best Actor at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival for Peter Mullan and earned Loach the British Independent Film Award for Best Director.

Loach's films also include THE NAVIGATORS (2001), BREAD AND ROSES (2000), CARLA'S SONG (1996), LADYBIRD LADYBIRD (1994), RAINING STONES (1993), FATHERLAND (1985), BLACK JACK (1978), DAYS OF HOPE (1974/6) and FAMILY LIFE (1972), in addition to his many dramas made-for-television and documentary films. Loach received the Fipresci at the European Film Awards for SWEET SIXTEEN.