Dinard is Served: The British Film Festival...in France

For the best of British cinema, the best place to go is Brittany ...in France! From October 3-6, the picturesque seaside resort of Dinard will hold its 24th Festival du Film Britannique. With its beautiful beach, convivial casino, smart restaurants, quaint hotels and its unique seaside strolls, it resembles a more intimate Festival de Cannes and only for British films. Like Cannes, it has popular star turns and ambitious art house endeavours as well as a host of professional and social events.

One event that has become a regular fixture is the students short film competition, featuring three shorts each from the most prestigious French and British film schools, the Fémis and the NFTS.

Apart from that section, all the films on show are British or Irish. There is also a competition of six top-notch new features, this year including the much anticipated The Selfish Giant by Clio Bernard, a film that generated great buzz in Cannes this year. It is a very emotional story, where two young working class Bradford boys find their friendship tested when they get involved in scrap collecting and clandestine trotting races.

The Preview section includes 15 prestigious and very diverse films ranging from The Stone Roses: Made of Stone concert epic to the Hanif Kureisi scripted, Paris-located Le Week End, directed by romantic feel-good specialist Roger Michel and also the much tougher For Those in Peril by Paul Wright. It tells the tale of a young man, the sole survivor of a fishing boat accident that ravages a Scottish coastal village.

There is also a special screening of Ken Loach's Looking for Eric about a beleaguered Manchester postman (a football fanatic of course) who finds solace in his devotion to Britain's favourite Frenchmen, Eric Cantona. To his astonishment, his idol duly shows up to share his inimitable life philosophy and sort out some sticky moral issues. King Cantona, now also an actor stage and screen, will also show up in Dinard, for he will be the President of the competition jury alongside fellow thespians and filmmakers from France and the UK.

A homage to actor Toby Jones, notably his interpretation of Alfred Hitchcock in The Girl, a retrospective of French cinematographer Philippe Rousselet's British films, notably his work with Stephen Frears, a cracking TV drama section and a number of other specials complete the programme. The only problem with Dinard is that there isn't enough time in 4 full days to see everything that might take one's fancy in this French feast of British film.

See more at: http://www.festivaldufilm-dinard.com/en/

Séamas McSwiney is a film journalist with decades of experience and work published in some top international publications. Read more of his posts here.

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