Following on from preview screenings organised by the British Council in June for Festival Directors Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling, over 25 British films, including co-productions, were selected for this year's festival.

The strong line up of British films made its mark, with Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire winning the Cadillac People’s Choice Award and Steve McQueen’s Hunger, the winner of the prestigious Camera d’Or at Cannes, taking the Diesel Discovery Award.

The programme also included Cannes favourites Of Time And The City and Better Things which were both selected for the Cannes Critics' Week earlier this year. Also featuring was the world premiere of the UK/New Zealand co-production Dean Spangley directed by Toa Fraser and starring Peter O'Toole, Sam Neill and Bryan Brown and the UK/Canada co-production Stone of Destiny which wasthe closing film of the festival.

As part of 'Dialogues: Talking with Pictures' Terence Davies presented his 1984 feature The Terence Davies Trilogy. Other familiar names at the festival were Mike Leigh, Michael Winterbottom, Guy Richie, and Richard Eyre, whilst relative newcomer Saul Dibb screened his second feature, the eagerly anticipated The Duchess. Non-fiction took it’s place in the line-up, with a visual history of the 1968 student protests, an exploration of modern China’s zeitgeist and a ‘popumentary’.

The full list of British films (including co-productions) shown:

Better Things Duane Hopkins (UK)
Biggest Chinese Restaurant in the World Weijun Chen (UK/The Netherlands/Denmark)
Blood Trail Richard Parry (UK)
Dean Spanley Toa Fraser (UK/New Zealand)
The Duchess Saul Dibb (UK/France/Italy)
Easy Virtue Stephan Elliott (UK)
Encyclopedia Britannica John Latham (UK)
Fifty Dead Men Walking Kari Skogland (UK/Canada)
Flash in the Metropolitan Rosalind Nashishibi and Lucy Skaer (UK)
Genova Michael Winterbottom (UK)
Good Vicente Amorim (UK/Germany)
Happy-Go-Lucky Mike Leigh (UK)
Hunger Steve McQueen (UK)
Is there Anybody There? John Crowley (UK)
Me and Orson Welles Richard Linklater UK)
Of Time and the City Terence Davies (UK)
The Other Man Richard Eyre (UK/USA)
RocknRolla Guy Ritchie (UK)
Secret of Moonacre Gabor Csupo (UK/Hungary/France)
Skin Anthony Fabian (UK/South Africa)
Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle (UK)
Sounds Like Teen Spirit: A Popumentary Jamie Jay Johnson (UK)
Stone of Destiny Charles Martin Smith (UK/Canada)
The Terence Davies Trilogy Terence Davies (UK)
A Time to Stir Paul Cronin (UK/USA)
Vinyan Fabrice du Welz (UK/France/Belgium)