Ticket sales at the Sarasota Film Festival were up by approximately 16 percent this year over last year, as the event spread into venues with higher seating capacity and attracted more out-of-town guests to the region. The festival this year ran from April 9-19 with appearances by stars including Rachel Weisz, Jane Seymour, Ben Vereen and Blythe Danner.

“It has a lot of national and international recognition that has only built up over the years,” said SFF President Mark Famiglio.

Organizers say the festival saw increases in both in-town and out-of-town guests. The festival this year screened more than a dozen films in the Sarasota Opera House, and also incorporated event venues such as Florida Studio Theatre and McCurdy’s Comedy Theatre. While the majority of screenings still took place in regular movie theaters at the Regal Hollywood 20, even there high attendance led to more numbers of screenings. In the end, Famiglio said, the festival hosted just under 300 separate screenings, as well as five panels and four “In Conversation…” events.

The Florida festival hosted 38 world premieres of films this year, and programed 33 Florida-based films. There were 237 out-of-area filmmakers hosted by the festival.