Dunedin's big snow put the chill on the 2011 New Zealand International Film Festival.
Attendance numbers were down after last week's polar blast disrupted the festival programme, with festival director Bill Gosden saying the weather had "put a dent in film festival attendance".
Box office figures showed sales were down 233 on last year, from 14,008 to 13,775.
"We only have one chance a year to present our programme, so the frustrations caused by such extreme weather conditions are enormous," Mr Gosden said yesterday.
"... although we had to depart from our schedule several times for two days, only one film, The Future, missed out entirely on a Dunedin screening."
The schedule had been too tight to schedule replacement screenings of film prints, he said, although the different operating format of 3D film had made it possible to schedule an extra screening of 3D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams at Hoyts Octagon at 6.30pm today.
The best attended films in Dunedin were The Tree of Life, Formula One documentary Senna and digitally restored Central Otago gold mining film Illustrious Energy.
"Local support for the festival seemed to be at a renewed high this year, thanks to a great programme and the happy coincidence of our longstanding dates with the reopening of the Regent," Mr Gosden said.
