WIFF shatters ticket sales for 2016 festival

The Windsor International Film Festival set record ticket sales at this year's festival with more than 20,000 tickets sold.

Festival organizers rolled out a lineup of Oscar contenders, live table reads and local films in 2016.

• 2016 Windsor International Film Festival lineup announced

WIFF had 107 films from 22 countries with a total of 165 screenings over the course of the six-day festival. Ticket sales surpassed last year's numbers of 17,000 tickets.

"Just fantastic, we started with packed houses, we ended with packed houses and downtown Windsor was very much alive," organizer Vincent Georgie said. "We saw a lot of new people and they would be maybe friends and family of people who have come all the time."

Earlier this year, the festival was named thesecond-largest volunteer-run film festival in Canada. WIFF expanded its operations this year, screening films at the Chrysler Theatre in addition to the regular showings at the Capitol Theatre.

"It puts our festival on the map," Georgie said. "Many other film festivals across Ontario join us at our festival to see what we do, how we do it, look at the films that we selected and it puts our festival at a greater stature."