Mumbai: The winners of the 19th Festival du Film Britannique de Dinard were announced at the end of the weekend long festival.
This year Boy A directed by John Crowley, written by Mark O’Rowe (based on a novel by Jonathan Trigell) and starring Peter Mullan and Andrew Garfield got a total of four prizes including the Grand Prix Jury – The Hitchcock d’Or which comes with a financial contribution of €3,000 towards distribution costs, and €1,600 bequest to the director. Maryam d’Abo collected the award on John Crowley’s behalf.
Boy A also walked away with The Grand Marnier trophy, which is awarded by the jury for the best screenplay to writer Mark O’Rowe, the Prix Kodak for best Cinematography to Rob Hardy and the Hitchcock d’Argent Le Prix Premier du Public, awarded to the public’s favourite film of the festival.
Hunger directed by Steve McQueen took home the Heartbeat Award, awarded by a group of French distributors who will release the film in all their theatres, which equates to approximately 40 cinemas in the Brittany region.
Forbach directed by Claire Burger took home Le Prix entente Cordiale du British Council, the prize is awarded by the British Council to the best short film in the NFTS – Fémis competition.
In total, six films competed for The Golden Hitchcock Trophy decided by the Dinard Jury, which consisted of; Rory McCann, Tara Fitzgerald, Lucy Russell, Aissa Maiga, Alice Taglioni, Arie Elmaleh, Valerie Kaprisky; with Lambert Wilson residing over the jury as president.
Other films to screen In Competition this year were: A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (directed by Chris Waitt), Clubbed (directed by Neil Thompson), Helen (directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor), The Escapist (directed by Rupert Wyatt) and The Market (directed by Ben Hopkins).
Guests at the festival included tribute winner Hugh Hudson and his wife Maryam d’Abo, the cast of Clubbed including Mel Raido, Shaun Parkes, Colin Salmon and Scot Williams. Williams also starred in avant premiere film The Crew. The Escapist was represented by Brian Cox, Liam Cunningham and Dominic Cooper. Cunningham and Cooper were also able to represent their films Hunger and The Duchess respectively.
This year’s surprise film was Michael Winterbottom’s Genova which was presented by Colin Firth.
The closing night film Somers town was presented by Shane Meadows.
The documentary The Meerkats directed by James Honeyborne and narrated by Paul Newman was also shown in association with Les Toiles Enchantées an organization that screens films to children in hospital.
The Festival du Film Britannique de Dinard is supported by the UK Film Council, with the British Council and the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC). Attracting key producers and industry personnel from both France and the UK, the weekend-long event are totally dedicated to British feature films.
