Bite the Mango has bitten the dust at the National Media Museum.

The world cinema strand has been abandoned following diminishing audience figures and reduced funding available to Screen Yorkshire.

No redundancies are involved and international films will continue to be shown at the museum.

Kathryn Blacker, head of public programming, said: “We looked to see if there was a different way of doing something to support something we believed in for 15 years, but that didn’t come through.

“As there was less of a pot of money we could dig into from Screen Yorkshire, it seemed better to concentrate resources on the Bradford International Film Festival and the Bradford Animation Film Festival.

“We will continue to show world cinema films. We have a big season of Japanese films coming up in August and September; but the Bite the Mango brand won’t be there.

“And we will continue to work with Kala Sangam to put on community events, but perhaps not in this building.”

Five years ago 3,200 admissions were recorded for the Bite the Mango film festival. Last year that figure was 407.

Last summer, after the award of the Unesco City of Film status, Bite the Mango was revamped. The festival was reduced to a weekend, with special films screened every month. The Indian dance group Kala Sangam was involved in several projects.

But in the ten months from August to May this year admissions amounted to 1,349 – not enough, it was thought, to warrant the NMM bidding for Screen Yorkshire funds.

On average, Screen Yorkshire contributed between £8,000 to £9,000 a year towards the cost of Bite the Mango.

Admissions for International Film Festival and the Animation Film Festival last year – 11,000 and between 7,000 to 8,000 respectively – are up.

Overall, the last year has seen up to 81,000 admissions to cinema events at the museum, “a modest increase” according to Kathryn Blacker.

Irfan Ajeeb, former Bite the Mango festival director, said: “I just did not see it going out like this. It had so much more potential. I’m just sad to see these years of building coming to an abrupt end.”