Close to 23,000 people made it to the movies for the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival this year, a nearly 60% increase in overall attendance from previous years, according to Cinema St. Louis officials.
The festival’s attendance includes around 13,000 members of the public and more than 10,000 students who participated through the nonprofit’s educational Cinema for Students program.
Public attendance grew 24% compared with the year before, and each screening drew an average of 45 people.
The festival, which wrapped Sunday, featured 271 films at a dozen regional venues including Arkadin Cinema, Washington University and Cinema St. Louis’ own theater, the Hi-Pointe.
“Being together in community is a thing that you don't get sitting on the couch by yourself,” said Emmett Williams, Cinema St. Louis director of festival curation and education. “When you pair great films with people wanting to watch the films with each other, I think it works.”
The increase in attendees comes as moviegoing nationwide has waned, with the country’s annual domestic box office returns falling short of prepandemic levels.
Williams said the festival's strong turnout stemmed from diverse programming that appealed to a wide range of audiences.
“It’s choosing films that are sort of a balance between things you know people want to see and challenging people a little bit,” he said. “I think the St. Louis film community wants equally to see something that is somewhat familiar, but also very much something that's not familiar.”
Filmgoers awarded “Steal This Story, Please!” featuring independent journalist Amy Goodman the audience award for best documentary. They dubbed “Undercard,” starring Wanda Sykes, the best narrative film and Academy Award winner Chloe Zhao’s “Hamnet” the best studio film.
Cinema St. Louis officials say the increased attendance hints that a new strategy is working: In recent years the festival has offered fewer screenings so attendees don’t have to deal with as many competing showtimes.
Screeners reviewed 2,500 submissions to choose the final slate of 270 films, Williams said. One of the most popular tickets was for a showing of the St. Louis Immigration Project, which paired local directors with immigrants and refugees in the region to create a series of short films. The showing sold out before Cinema St. Louis did any marketing, Williams said. After the festival added more seats, those sold out, too.
Earlier this year, the nonprofit announced it had lost $20 million in federal grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts that helped pay for the festival. The reduction was part of the Trump administration’s wide-ranging cost-cutting measures.
