world cinema

For the best of British cinema, the best place to go is Brittany ...in France! From October 3-6, the picturesque seaside resort of Dinard will hold its 24th Festival du Film Britannique. With its beautiful beach, convivial casino, smart restaurants, quaint hotels and its unique seaside strolls, it resembles a more intimate Festival de Cannes and only for British films. Like Cannes, it has popular star turns and ambitious art house endeavours as well as a host of professional and social events.

One event that has become a regular fixture is the students short film competition, featuring three shorts each from the most prestigious French and British film schools, the Fémis and the NFTS.

Apart from that section, all the films on show are British or Irish. There is also a competition of six top-notch new features, this year including the much anticipated The Selfish Giant by Clio Bernard, a film that generated great buzz in Cannes this year. It is a very emotional story, where two young working class Bradford boys find their friendship tested when they get involved in scrap collecting and clandestine trotting races.

After its 12-day sojourn in Cannes for the festival, the capital of World Cinema has moved back to its home in Paris. To mark the event an honorific award was made to the now most French of Persian filmmakers, Asghar Farhadi.

According to Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, Farhadi is "a man who brings us closer to Iranian society, through his subtlety and refinement, full of delicate cultural observations".

"Your creation", he continues, "makes me think of Victor Hugo's words: "All human kind has rights to Paris" and you have a very special way of expressing things when you use Paris as a location."

Farhadi had recently returned from Cannes where he was celebrated for his new film Le Passé (The Past), a film shot entirely in the Paris area and in French. In Cannes, Le Passé received the best actress award for Bérénice Bejo and at the opulent salons of Paris city hall, Farhadi himself was awarded the city's gold medal, la Grande Médaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris.

After looking at the Palme D'or winner at this year's festival Blue is the Warmest Colour last week, our film correspondent Séamas McSwiney explores those that missed out on the main prize but took others.

"To reinforce Cannes' role in projecting cultural diversity, the festival's other prizes went to a disparate mix of films.