The 38th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) ended this weekend on a more muted note than in previous years.

For details of Rotterdam Tiger Awards click here

On the final day,the KPN Audience Award went to Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle and co-director Loveleen Tandan.

The festival's own official figures revealed that both attendance and
international visitor numbers were down, albeit by very small amounts.

The total number of visits to festival screenings and events were: 341,000 (as opposed to 355,000 last year.) The number of festival
guests were 2,128 (in 2008, it was 2,799).

The total number of journalists were 357 (2008: 458). The total number of CineMart guests were 790 (2008: 830).

'I am very happy. I think it was a really good and successful edition
of the festival,' Festival director Rutger Wolfson commented of his
second edition at the helm.

He professed himself happy with the way that attendances and visitor numbers had held up. 'We didn't fear one (a decline) and it didn't happen. People really want to come to this festival. If people have to economize, they might be economizing on something else and not on tickets for the festival.'

The 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam will take place from
Wednesday 27 January to Sunday 7 February 2010.

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