CANNES: As Cannes gears up to award its coveted Palme d'Or, Ken Loach scored an early goal Saturday for his football flick "Looking for Eric," scooping the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

Starring temperamental football legend Eric Cantona, the director's feelgood film is one of half a dozen frontrunners for the festival's top prize, out of 20 movies in competition.

In Loach's film, the former Manchester United star appears like a vision to act as psychological mentor to a depressed postman struggling to cope with life and two unruly teenage stepsons.

A comedy with a quintessential Loach undertone of social and human drama, the movie won warm acclaim from critics.

The six-member Ecumenical Jury also gave a commendation to Austrian director Michael Haneke's pre-Nazi drama "The White Ribbon", a chilling black-and-white portrait of a Protestant German village on the eve of World War I.

Haneke is also one of the hottest tickets to pick up the Palme at a gala ceremony Sunday closing the world's biggest annual movie event, with the leading critics' favourite a prison drama by French director Jacques Audiard titled "A Prophet".