The new film from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle opened the British Film Festival in Dinard, France, on Thursday evening.

Millions is the story of two children who discover a bag containing stolen cash - almost ￡250,000 - and must spend it days before Britain's change over to the Euro without raising suspicion.

It marks a change of direction for the 48-year-old film director, whose first feature film Shallow Grave won the top prize, the Hitchcock award, at the film festival 10 years ago, in 1994.

Mingling comedy with fantasy, it stars Cold Feet's James Nesbitt and Daisy Donovan alongside the two young boys and seems deliberately targeted at the Christmas market with its sentimental overtones, fuelled by the younger boy's belief in miracles.

This year's festival, held under the banner of the Entente Cordiale, celebrating 100 years of Franco-British relations, is presided over by British actress Charlotte Rampling.

In an introductory speech to the 15th festival in the Breton town of Dinard, the actress, born in England but raised in France, claimed a special place in her heart for the festival having successfully divided her career between the two nations.

Best known for her role in Night Porter, opposite Dirk Bogarde in 1974, and subsequent work for directors including Woody Allen, Sydney Lumet and Claude Lelouch, Rampling won critical acclaim with her comeback role in Francois Ozon's Under the Sand in 2000, and more recently in Swimming Pool in 2003.

At Dinard, Rampling can be seen in the Mike Hodges film I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, which is showing at the festival as part of a tribute to British director Hodges whose classic gangster movie Get Carter recently topped a magazine poll to find the best British film.

Also celebrated at the festival will be actor Christopher Lee, the iconic British villain who has starred in more than 200 films including The Lord of the Rings and the recent Star Wars trilogy, and The Magic Roundabout.

Conceived by a French man, Serge Danot, the English version of the Manege Enchante became cult viewing in Britain when it was adapted for UK TV by Eric Thompson, father of actress Emma Thompson, in 1965.

Six films will features in competition at the festival over the weekend, with the Hitchcock d'Or due to be announced on Saturday prior to the gala screening of Mike Leigh's Venice winner Vera Drake.