Brittany will welcome the best recent films from across the channel at the Dinard Festival of British and Irish Film, which enjoys its 36th edition this year. Running between 1-5 October, it features two competitive sections that showcase an eclectic mix of the region's cinema, and Gala titles with high-profile names in front and behind the camera. 

Amongst the main competition’s highlights is Akinola Davies’ Cannes success My Father’s Shadow [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Akinola Davies Jr.
scheda film], set in 1990s Nigeria but largely backed by production companies from the British Isles. Dylan Southern’s The Thing with Feathers [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] with Benedict Cumberbatch, an adaptation of Max Porter’s innovative novel on grief, first bowed at Sundance before playing as a Berlinale Special Gala. Respected thespian Rupert Everett leads the jury, which is also composed of the French and British cultural luminaries Rachida Brakni, Claire Chazal, Reda Kateb, Molly Dineen, Jennifer Saunders and Ruby Wax.

Brendan Canty’s Christy [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Brendan Canty
scheda film], an Irish coming-of-age tale which premiered to acclaim in Berlin’s Generation strand, is the pick of the other competitive section, awarding the Talent of Tomorrow Ouest-France Prize. Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut Urchin [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], also fresh from Cannes, shows up in a non-competitive Gala, whilst the opening film My Mother’s Wedding, helmed by another respected actor in Kristin Scott Thomas, first premiered at Toronto all the way back in 2023. 

Artistic director Dominique Green made the following statement: “We are questioning what makes a British or Irish film. How do we define the nationality of a film beyond formal co-production treaties and cultural tests? We are seeing a growing number of informal international cooperations. As demographics transform societies and populations change, so do the stories being told. Whether telling the story of a small village or vast continents; characters and plots, passions and emotions, laughter and tears all launch British and Irish films beyond their home borders onto an international stage and it is this which we celebrate.” Her words come amidst a new era for Franco-British collaboration, with the BFI and CNC recently signing a new Moving Image Co-operationg Agreement (see the news).