Traditionally a celebration of all things British, the Dinard Film Festival (2-6 October) brought its 35th edition to the seaside town’s screens this year with a soft relaunch, having retitled itself to include Irish films and co-productions. The result was suitably eclectic, with just six films competing for the Hitchcock d’Or, voted for by a jury of eight actors and directors. Including The Quiet Girl director Colm Bairéad and House of the Dragon star Phoebe Campbell, the judging panel was headed by French actress-director-model-singer Arielle Dombasle, a favourite of Claude Lelouch, Éric Rohmer and Alain Robbe-Grillet but most recently this summer seen her perform her song “Olympics” to herald the arrival of the Olympic torch in Paris ahead of the recent Games.

Opening with Alice Lowe’s horror comedy Timestalker and closing with Matt Brown’s psychological drama Freud’s Last Session, the festival offered a vibrant snapshot of the current British film landscape, while also celebrating the past with documentaries paying homage to Powell and Pressburger and Merchant Ivory. There was a healthy dose of diversity, too, with female-directed films like Baltimore , Twig and Reawakening (starring VIP guest Juliet Stevenson) alongside queer- and trans-friendly titles like Unicorns and Sebastian . There was even a touch of interactivity, with audiences at Paul Raschid’s thriller Hello Stranger dictating the film’s progression using glowsticks.

The six films in competition spanned the spectrum of indie possibilities, including September Says (Ariane Labed); That They May Face The Rising Sun (Pat Collins); The Convert (Lee Tamahori); Unicorns (Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd); Bring Them Down (Christopher Andrews); and Poison (Desirée Nosbusch). Labed’s film, a tale of two mysterious sisters with a surprising secret, took home the top prize, but Unicorns proved a popular choice overall, as did Best Performer winner Lalor Roddy, who in his acceptance speech (very favorably) compared the city to a particularly fine bottle of stout.

The Unicorns team was particularly emotional. Taking the stage for a second time, again with his charismatic star Jason Patel, co-director Floyd reflected on the film’s appeal. “One thing I would say is that if this film is for anyone, it’s for queer South Asians everywhere,” he said. “I had a great time on the gay scene when I was younger, but now I’ve met people who have lived that life — which is a very hard life — their whole lives. We live in a world that divides us, and right now we’re all too deeply into our own tribes. The truth is, we’re all one tribe, and we’re all experiencing the same range of emotions — just in different contexts.”