Bunting, bobbies and Doctor Who phone boxes: Dinard, the French film festival that’s mad for Britain

Every autumn, a seaside resort in Brittany hosts a charming festival that celebrates only low-budget, independent British and Irish films. Is this a curious case for Poirot?

Cannes may be the home of France’s biggest and best-known film festival, but the one that’s held in Dinard in Brittany is, in its own way, just as remarkable. For five days at the start of every autumn, this beautifully spick-and-span seaside resort devotes itself to celebrating cinema, with one small but mind-boggling twist: the films it shows are all British and Irish. What’s more, they’re fairly low-budget independent productions – two of this year’s highest-profile entries were The Outrun with Saoirse Ronan and Alice Lowe’s Timestalker. And yet, if you didn’t know any better, you’d assume from the red-carpet premieres, the lavish gala dinners and the sold-out screenings that they were all potential blockbusters and Oscar winners.

It’s no wonder that Rebecca O’Brien, the producer of Ken Loach’s films, counts Dinard as her favourite festival. “I love the blustery, end-of-season French seaside-town atmosphere, with the coves and the casino and the little old-fashioned hotels,” she says. “One of the highlights of my life was when they invited me to be godmother of the festival one year. They put me up in a gorgeous hotel, and they treated me like a queen. It was wonderful. No one else treats producers like that.”

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