Edinburgh Film Festival sees 10% ticket sales rise TICKET sales at last month's Edinburgh International Film Festival rose by 10 per cent compared to 2012, marking a return to growth after several difficult years for the festival. New figures released on Wednesday showed more than 44,000 admissions, an increase on around 40,000 the year before. In 2011 it attracted just 34,450 after shifting from August to June. This has marked a significant recovery for an event which has struggled to establish itself since splitting from other flagship summer festivals which led to a huge ticket slump and coincided with its budget being halved. The festival sold tickets for its multiple venues across the city, which included the EIFF's home at Filmhouse, Cineworld at Fountain Park, Festival Theatre Edinburgh, delegate centre venue, The Traverse, and new venues for 2013, The Dominion and Odeon Wester Hailes. Ken Hay, chief operating officer at the EIFF, said: "As well as the increase in the number of admissions, there have been unprecedented levels of online interaction across multiple digital platforms. Our planning for the 68th EIFF in 2014 is well underway: Chris Fujiwara and his team have already started to construct another programme that will offer hidden gems, discoveries and films to challenge and dare our growing audience. The festival closed on Sunday with the romantic comedy Not Another Happy Ending, starring Dr Who star Karen Gillan and set in Glasgow's West End. During the 12-day run 146 features were screened, including 14 world premieres, 6 international premieres and 9 European premieres. Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel's Leviathan won the coveted Michael Powell Award, and the Award for Best Film in the International Competition went to Mahdi Fleifel's A World Not Ours. The Audience Award went to Fire in the Night, a documentary detailing the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea, directed by Anthony Wonke and based on the book by author Stephen McGinty.