DESPITE a financial crunch and a shake-up in core personnel, the Singapore International Film Festival (Siff) presented its 21st edition with renewed vigour and excitement.

Its budget was halved from $850,000 to $400,000 this year, while long-time festival directors Ms Teo Swee Leng and Mrs Lesley Ho resigned last July.

While festival director Philip Cheah declined to reveal details of ticket sales, he added that 55 shows were sold out, the most in its history.

Including the free programmes, about 200 features, short films and documentaries from 40 countries were presented at the festival which ended Monday night.

For the first time this year, there was a showcase of local films under the Singapore Panorama banner and ticketed sessions were held for the short film finalists of the Silver Screen Awards.

They were among the most popular offerings. Five of the six screenings for the shorts were sold out.

Experimental omnibus feature Lucky7, a collaborative effort by seven film-makers, and lesbian documentary Women Who Love Women also enjoyed multiple full-house crowds.

Airline operations executive Anthony Goh, 41, caught the short films and at least four other local features.

Read the full story in Tuesday's edition of The Straits Times' Life!