British films were overlooked at Cannes 2013. Martin Baker asks if we should care, and if we are getting value from BFI, Bafta, and the rest

 The stars have departed the Croisette for another year, and what did we learn? As usual, the post-Cannes talk is firmly focused on numbers. Large ones, too – Lionsgate is spending big on The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, box-office figures are buoyant, and one of the trade papers reported that a young woman got a €40,000 tip for providing an Arab prince with an evening’s entertainment – now there’s a number to crunch. Venality, greed, lust and excruciatingly expensive steak frites have reasserted their rightful place in the festival’s order of things. God is back in his heaven, and cinema has returned to Paradiso.