Dinard, France’s most British seaside resort!
In the 19th century, the fashion for sea bathing gave rise to a natural infatuation with the Emerald Coast, the rugged Breton coastline with its romantic corners.
It was this craze, born in England for its therapeutic virtues, that established Dinard as an international seaside resort… and it was the British who actively participated in its development! The town quickly became a vacation spot for wealthy English aristocrats, who turned it into their seaside resort.
These early discoverers, in love with the site, built superb villas inspired by the grand mansions of the Victorian era. The magic still works, with a “so British” atmosphere hovering over the city’s streets and beaches.
Founded in 1989 by Thierry de la Fournière, the British Film Festival introduces professionals and film buffs alike to the richness of a dynamic and original production. The Dinard British Film Festival and British film production have grown in parallel. As the number of films produced in Great Britain doubled in the early 90s, the Festival saw its reputation and attendance grow.
From social chronicles to wacky comedies, British cinema is a force to be reckoned with. True to its original spirit, the Dinard Festival has become an important vector for all films wishing to conquer the European market. The event is also an opportunity for the many distributors present to discover films that will be able to find a network of theatres after the festival.
A veritable cradle of previews, the festival has been “right on the money”, programming first features that have all won awards at Dinard and been successfully exported: Petits meurtres entre amis (1994), The Full Monty (1997), Billy Elliot (2000), Bloody Sunday (2002) and La jeune fille à la perle (2003).
The biggest names in Franco-British cinema came to Dinard for the Festival:
Catherine Deneuve, Ben Kingsley, Hugh Grant, Charlotte Rampling, Jane Birkin, Sir Tom Courtenay, Sir Christopher Lee, Peter Mullan, Toby Jones, Nathalie Baye, John Hurt, Patrick Bruel, Éric Cantona, Valérie Lemercier, Shane Meadows, Emmanuelle Devos, Siena Miller, Line Renaud, Léa Druker, Roger Moore, Romane Bohringer, Daniel Craig, Jean Rochefort, Alexandra Lamy, Natalie Dormer, Virginie Efira, Emma de Caunes, Hanif Kureishi, Claude Lelouch, James d’Arcy, Colin Vaines, Phil Davis, Jalil Lespert, Rupert Grint, Monica Bellucci, Alex Lutz, Ian Hart, Sandrine Bonnaire, Raphaël Personnaz…
