Veteran British filmmaker Ken Loach has announced his retirement from the industry. He recently confirmed the same in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter. His latest, and possibly last feature film, The Old Oak, will make its premiere at the annual Cannes Film Festival. The film marks Loach’s 15th film to premiere at the festival.
Loach said, “Realistically, it would be hard to do a feature film again. Films take a couple of years and I’ll be nearly 90.” The filmmaker is currently 87 years old.
The director previously announced his retirement in 2014 when his film Jimmy’s Halls premiered at Cannes. He announced that the film would be his last. After the election of a Conservative Government in the UK in 2015, his retirement was revoked. The new government’s move to cut social benefits led the director to make I, Daniel Blake. The film bagged him his second Palme d’Or after he bagged the award in 2006 for The Wind That Shakes the Barley.
The Old Oak, Loach’s latest, and supposedly last project, will tell the story of the decline of a pub in Northeast England. The closure of mines in the once-mining town makes it an ideal spot for the landing of Syrian refugees.
The Old Oak will make its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which is set to begin on May 16, 2023. The festival will run through May 27, 2023.