Portland’s Northwest Film Center begins its 35th annual Portland International Film Festival Thursday. The festival, which will screen 140 films from 36 countries, will have something for everyone and present a wide selection of genres.
“We look for quality cinema. We’re looking for films that focus on global issues and have good stories and good characters,” said Jessica Lyness, public relations and marketing manager of the Northwest Film Center. “We make sure that we have a diverse range, everything from family films to crime dramas to political documentaries to romance.”
Among the films on offer will be 14 Oscar-nominated films, four full-length films and seven short films. The first film, to be shown Thursday night, will be a special screening of CBS Films’ Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
“There are all kinds of things we’re keeping in mind as we’re programming. We are trying to make our festival relevant to as broad of a community as we can, a festival that touches a lot of different people,” said festival director Bill Foster. “We want to have some challenging works and some accessible works and something that might be for all ages.”
The films will be shown at multiple locations, including the Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium, the Regal Pioneer Place and the World Trade Center Theater.
The Northwest Film Center searches for films for the Portland International Film Festival throughout the year. They visit other festivals to see new work being released and have a constant rolling submission. Every year they receive hundreds of submissions.
In addition, the center shows films year-round and holds many smaller film festivals. It also offers film classes, funds filmmakers through scholarships and has a yearly summer camp for children. The center was founded in 1971, and the International Film Festival began six years later. It was a decade during which many international film festivals were born.
“In the ’70s, there was an explosion of international-focused events and a growing importation of films,” said Foster, who has been director of the Northwest Film Center since 1981. “There was a big audience for foreign films, so [the International Film Festival] seemed like a logical addition.”
“I enjoy coming up with an interesting slate of films every year,” Foster explained. “I also like the part of the festival that’s separate from the films, which is making the whole thing work, the process of getting all these people involved and, at the end of the day, coming up with something that people are interested in. Getting the feedback that people saw something that really got to them, something that registered.”
Lyness graduated from Portland State with a bachelor’s degree in communication. She had been interested in filmmaking and “wanted to apply those skills in the non-profit art world.”
“My work starts once they’ve picked the film. My job is to promote the filmmakers that we screen,” Lyness said. “I love filmmakers, and I’m happy that I get to help. They spend years and put their heart and soul into these films, and I get audiences to see the films, and that’s a rewarding process.”
“[The festival] is intended to be something that opens people up to the possibilities that are out there, something that makes them see that there’s a lot more going on in the world than the things that we’re getting beat over the head with by American films that have a lot of money behind them,” Foster said. “And there’s nothing wrong with those, but it’s a mere fraction of things going on in the world.”
Lyness said that it’s important for college students especially to broaden their horizons.
“One of the rituals of our society is when you leave your family and hometown and go to college, where you mix with people from all over the world, and you’re learning important things,” she said. “The International Film Festival is a chance to experience these cultures from around the world. It’s a way to really broaden the mind and perspectives of college students and give them that passport into the world without having to leave Portland.”