MONTREAL — The 36th annual Festival du nouveau cinéma has wrapped and, predictably, organizers say this year’s event was one of the best ever. And in this case, they are probably right.

The programming was contemporary and imaginative, the city was abuzz with talk of the 300 films, and there was a crush of crowds outside the FNC’s main venues throughout the 11-day event, which officially ended on Sunday.

The festival passed its box-office total for last year on Wednesday, says FNC director Nicolas Girard Deltruc, though official statistics will not be available until later this week. The FNC also sold four times as many passes this year as last, says the organizer. ‘It was extraordinary. There were many more young people out this year. It really went well,’ he says.

Deltruc attributes the wide appeal of this year’s event to a number of factors, including bargain-basement prices for festival passes — $80 for students and seniors and $100 for regulars. FNC also offered a two-for-one ticket to anyone with a Montreal bus pass.

Even though the festival had less cash this year than last year, it scheduled more film-related events, says Deltruc. ‘We had master classes and thematic evenings. And we put lots of energy into new technology. We had video blogs on YouTube and Facebook.’ Deltruc estimates that this year’s budget was around $2 million.

The FNC’s feature film award, the Louve d’Or, went to The Band’s Visit — an Israel/France copro about cross-cultural reconciliation, directed by Eran Kolirin. A special mention went to Australian filmmaker Kriv Stenders’ Boxing Day, which recounts the story of a recovering alcoholic who struggles to reunite his estranged family over the course of a single afternoon. The film’s star, Richard Green, also received the FNC’s Acting Award.

The Daniel Langlois innovation prize was given to Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame, the moving and often humorous tale by Iran’s Hana Makhmalbaf of a young girl’s attempt to get to school in rural Afghanistan. The Mexican film La Zona, by Rodrigo Plà, picked up the FNC’s people’s choice award.

The NFB Short Film Award went to Quebec filmmaker Sébastien Pilote for Dust Bowl Ha! Ha! and Madame Tutli-Putli by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski. South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-Wook’s I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK won the the Z Télé people’s choice award, while the Quebec film critic’s association prize, the AQCC award, went to XXY, an Argentina/France/Spain coproduction by Lucia Puenzo.

The festival closed with a gala screening of the 2007 Cannes Palme d’Or-winning 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, by Romanian Cristian Mungiu.