The credits rolled on The Times BFI 51st London Film Festival last night after high-quality cinema from around the world drew record audiences.

The director Wes Anderson and the actors Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody were the rearguard in a parade of international stars to grace the festival red carpet when they arrived to introduce The Darjeeling Limited and its short companion film Hotel Chevalier for the closing night gala.

Audience figures for the 16 days have yet to be finalised but comfortably outstripped the previous mark of 113,000 set last year.

Sandra Hebron, the festival’s artistic director, said: “It has been heartening to see such an enthusiastic response to the festival from the public, the media and the industry at large.

“A strong and diverse programme of films, a wealth of inspirational film-makers, record levels of public attendance and the success of our industry and educational events has made this a hugely enjoyable and successful festival.”

Anderson, who has carved out a unique niche in the industry with the offbeat comedies Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, told an audience earlier that he hoped that his film about three estranged brothers travelling through India would improve the image of Americans abroad.

“Our story is about these Americans who go some place they’ve never been with their minds not entirely open and what they ultimately experience is something very positive for them.

“I went to India with a group of people [including his co-writers Schwartzman and Roman Coppola], some of whom knew India well and some of whom didn’t at all. They were all deeply affected by it.

“We made new friends there and found new collaborators. It had quite an impact on us and on me.”

Internationalism and embracing new experiences are at the heart of any successful film festival. More than 1,000 industry professionals attended London this year, including 515 visiting international filmmakers.

The accomplished directors Ang Lee, David Cronenberg and David Lynch were joined by Hollywood A-listers such as Tom Cruise, Robert Redford, Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Halle Berry and Steve Buscemi on the damp October nights.

From other leading cinema cultures came Amitabh Bachan, the Bollywood icon; Cristian Mungiu, the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning Romanian film-maker and François Ozon, Catherine Breillat and Marjane Satrapi from France.

British representatives included the veteran directors Richard Attenborough, Paul Greengrass, Nick Broomfield and Sam Mendes as well as newer directing and acting talents such as Asif Kapadia, Andrew Garfield and Sarah Gavron, Ben Whishaw and Garth Jennings.

Unlike festivals such as Cannes, Venice and Berlin, London awards no main prize but there are several smaller awards. Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud received the Sutherland Trophy for the most imaginative first feature for Persepolis.

Joanna Hogg was awarded the 10th FIPRESCI International Critics Award for Unrelated. The Alfred Dunhill Award for emerging British talent was presented to Sarah Gavron for Brick Lane.

Box office

51st London Film Festival

16 days of films

185 feature-length films were shown

133 short films

43 countries contributed films for this year’s event 515 international filmmakers visited the festival

Source: Times database

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