Left-wing British director Ken Loach hit out at austerity in Europe Sunday after winning the top Palme d'Or top prize at the Cannes film festival for a movie which showed the shame of poverty.

"The world we live in is at a dangerous point right now. We are in the grip of a dangerous project of austerity driven by ideas that we call neo-liberalism that have brought us to near catastrophe," he said as he accepted the award.