06/10/2003

The jury of the 14th edition of the Dinard Festival of British Films were split in their preferences and so decided to make the exceptional award of two Golden Hitchcock Awards, with the first going to The Girl with the Pearl Earring [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Peter Webber and the second, for direction, to 16 years of Alcohol by Richard Jobson.
br> The jury was led by the producer Charles Gassot (Telema) and also included the actresses Emma de Caunes and Catherine Mc Cormack. They chose Peter Webber and his The Girl with the Pearl Earring for the “quality of the images” and “homogeneity between the technique and the subject”. The film, which also won the public prize, is the story of a mysterious portrait done by the famous Dutch painter, Jan Vermeer, and it will be distributed in France in 2004 by Pathé. But the split in the jury also meant that Webber’s cash prize was reduced to a third of the €4,600 total, with the rest of the money going to Richard Jobson and his 16 years of Alcohol, which was rewarded for its mix of part and present art and its references to film classics like A Clockwork Orange and In the Mood for Love.
The Dinard festival is an important showcase for French and British cinematography, put on by cooperation with the British Film Council and the French National Film School - CNC. This year the festival registered daily audiences of 18,600.