35th Portland International Film Festival had Sold Out Screenings

Bridget Smith, Dan Heine, Roberta Heine, Dave Nutter, and Shanelle Pridemore were supporters from Bank of Oswego

Portland, February 9th. Opening Night of the Portland International Film Festival drew 849 people The crowd at PCPA’s Newmark Theater enjoyed a screening of CBS Films’ Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Bridget Smith, Dan Heine, Roberta Heine, Dave Nutter, and Shanelle Pridemore attended as event supporters from Bank of Oswego. The Northwest Film Center, is the parent organization of the Portland International Film Festival.

Jessica Lyness, Abigail Press, and Annika Wagner

The Portland International Film Festival is the major film event in Oregon. This year the 18-day festival presented more than 93 feature films and 46 shorts from more than three dozen countries in all four quadrants of Portland and even branched out to Lake Oswego. Theater venues included the Portland Center for the Performing Arts, the Regal Cinemas at Pioneer Place and Lloyd Center Mall, the World Trade Center Theater, Cinemagic, Cinema 21, the Lake Twin Cinemas in Lake Oswego, and the Portland Art Museum’s Whitsell Auditorium.

John Yu, Kathy Zhany, Lauren McNerney, and Alexei Bein

Attendance over the course of the festival is expected to be over 35,000 people.

Opening night was sold out

Now in its 35th year, the Festival is sustained through the encouragement, leadership, and generosity of sponsors.

Shirley Carlson, Marina Stites, Jane Kennedy

This year’s Festival features the Portland premieres of 20 films submitted for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, including: Breathing (Austria); Bullhead (Belgium); Monsieur Lazhar (Canada); Habanastation (Cuba); Declaration of War (France); Patagonia (Great Britain); Attenberg (Greece); The Turin Horse (Hungary); Volcano (Iceland); Abu, Son of Adam (India); Footnote (Israel); Postcard (Japan); Where Do We Go Now? (Lebanon); The Orator (New Zealand); Woman in the Septic Tank (Philippines); José y Pilar (Portugal); Morgen (Romania); The Front Line (South Korea); and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Turkey).

The Portland International Film Festival is sponsored by The Oregonian, Regal Cinemas, LAIKA, The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Alaska Airlines, Wieden+Kennedy, Delta Airlines, James F. Marion Miller Foundation, and many more. Presentation of the Festival in Lake Oswego is made possible by the Bank of Lake Oswego and the City of Lake Oswego.

The Festival is produced by the Northwest Film Center, a regional media arts resource and service organization founded to encourage the study, appreciation, and utilization of the moving image arts, foster their artistic and professional excellence, and to help create a climate in which they flourish. In addition to the Portland International Film Festival, the Center produces the annual Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival, Portland Jewish Film Festival and a variety of year-round of film and video exhibition, educational and information programs serving Oregon and residents of the Northwest.

Elisa Klein

I’ve been a professional journalist and writer since 1987, (and long-time reporter for KOIN-TV.) As a nationally published reporter, with a Master’s Degree in Journalism, I love to report positive news and information. Journalism has also connected me with another non-profit where I served as a leader; the Northwest’s biggest writer’s organization: The Willamette Writers.