Britain may not have had any films in the official Cannes Film Festival competition, but one British film-maker managed to steal some of the limelight at the awards ceremony.

Steve McQueen, 38, won the Camera d’Or for best first feature film. Having made his name as a video artist who won the Turner Prize in 1999 and as an official war artist in Iraq in 2003, he found recognition last night at the world’s largest film showcase.

He was singled out for Hunger, his acclaimed film about the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who died in the Maze Prison in 1981 after 66 days of his campaign to be recognised as a political prisoner. It was shown at the festival’s second competition, Un Certain Regard.

The Palme d’Or went to Entre les murs (The Class), an unsentimental docu-drama set in a tough Paris high school. It had earned one of the warmest receptions from a jaded audience of critics and industry executives who had been largely disappointed by the 22 films in the official competition.

Directed by Laurent Cantet and using real teachers and pupils, the film is based on an autobiographical novel by François Begaudeau and explores themes of race and prejudice.

Sean Penn, the president of the judging panel, had made clear at the beginning of the festival that the panel would be looking for a winner with “something to say about the times” in which we live.

The awards ceremony was filled with stars such as Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie and Catherine Deneuve, but they were all eclipsed by a newcomer. Jolie and Deneuve had been widely tipped to win best actress, but the award went instead to the Brazilian Sandra Corveloni.

The 43-year-old wowed the jury with her performance as a pregnant mother in Line of Passage, which was co-directed by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas. She plays a housemaid whose sons are tempted into a life of crime. “I’m proud to be in a profession that reflects what a nation is,” she said as she accepted her award.

Salles is best known internationally for The Motorcycle Diaries, his acclaimed film about Che Guevara’s epic trip across Latin America. Last night, Steven Soderbergh’s film about the revolutionary hero saw its Oscar-winning star, Benicio Del Toro, win the Best Actor award.

Deneuve and Clint Eastwood, were both awarded a special prize for their contributions to cinema. Many had assumed that it would be fifth time lucky for Eastwood with his latest film, The Exchange, which stars Jolie in a true story of a woman whose son goes missing.

Top honours at Cannes have served as a launch point for such high-profile films as Soderbergh’s Sex, Lies and Videotape and Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.

Prize winners

Palme d’Or

Entre les murs (The Class) by Laurent Cantet, a “fly-on-the-wall” story about life in a classroom

Grand Prix runner-up prize

Gomorrah by Matteo Garrone, a movie about the Italian Mafia

Jury prize

Paolo Sorrentino for Il Divo, about former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti

Best Actor

Benicio Del Toro, right, for his title performance in Che, Steven Soderbergh’s film about the revolutionary hero

Best Actress

Sandra Corveloni for her performance as a maid in Line of Passage

Best First Feature (Camera d’Or)

Steve McQueen for Hunger, a biopic about the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands

Best Screenplay

Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne for The Silence of Lorna

Cannes Lifetime Achievement Award

Clint Eastwood and Catherine Deneuve

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