The numbers are in for Edinburgh International Film Festival following its historic move from August to June. As The Herald reported on Monday, the number of tickets sold was up by 3% and box office income by 5%. How big a part two-for-one offers, and higher ticket prices, played in those increases is not known.


The press screenings were well attended, particularly for the major releases such as Wall.E and Somers Town. While the media play an important role in the success of any festival - filmmakers want and need the publicity, after all - these events are really about the audiences. Did they discover anything new and wonderful, or was it a case of great expectations followed by disappointment?


There was certainly dismay over the opening and closing movies. The Edge of Love was lovely but dull, while Faintheart was a bland British comedy that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Bank Holiday telly. That’s the trouble with the festival taking a best of British angle: if the quality isn’t there it soon shows.


There were some good British films, however. Robert Carlyle was brilliant in Summer. Since he’s just been named a festival patron, it might have been fitting to put his best performance in years into the closing slot. So a gritty film about death and friendship wouldn’t have sent the festival out with a hop, skip and a jump, but the leaden comedy of Faintheart didn’t exactly manage that either.


Documentaries featured heavily among the word of mouth hits. Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World, Man on Wire, about the crossing of the Twin Towers, and Standard Operating Procedure, an account of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, were all outstanding. In the drama category there was The Visitor (out on general release this week),The Wackness , starring Ben Kingsley, Transsiberian (Kingsley again), The Fall, The Wave, and the seriously disturbing Let the Right One In. Landing Pixar’s Wall.E for the family gala was a coup for the organisers.


Among the turkeys were Stone of Destiny (embarrassing), Trail of the Screaming Forehead (unfunny) and A Complete History of My Sexual Failures (both embarrassing and unfunny).


The stars were obvious by their absence. Keira,Sienna,Sean and a few others turned up, but the red carpet did not take a lot of pounding. Shallow as it may seem, that’s one area Edinburgh must work on. If the stars don’t come out at night, why should the audiences?


Since film critics are honour bound to give a star rating to everything, I’d have to give this year’s festival a three - half way to paradise, with a fair way to go yet.


Pay attention Bond fans
The film is out on October 31, but if you can’t wait to see what Daniel Craig as 007 does next, the trailer for Quantum of Solace is at Quantum of Solace


Coming soon
Next week: Jules Verne’s classic gets another reworking, by my reckoning the third, in Journey to the Center of the Earth.
July 18: One lonely little robot tries to find love, and clear up after an environmental catastrophe, in Pixar’s stunning WALL.E
July 25: Batman swoops in the name of justice again in The Dark Knight.
August 1: Football hooliganism takes a kicking in Cass.
August 8: Penelope Cruz gets up close and personal with Ben Kingsley in Elegy, an adaptation of Roth’s The Dying Animal.


Pick of the week
The Visitor - lovely performances abound in this wise and tender tale of strangers meeting in a strange land.