Editor

The 31st Portland International Film Festival announces the Oregon Live Audience Award winners. This year's Festival wrapped up its 18 day run Sunday, February 24th after 186 total screenings at multiple theater locations in the downtown cultural district of Portland. This year's Festival was attended by over 30,000 attendees and included 74 features and 38 shorts from over 30 countries.

Audience winners included Jan Sverák's EMPTIES (Czech Republic) for Best Feature, followed by THE VISITOR (US) Tom Mccarthy and in third place Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film THE COUNTERFEITERS (Austria) Stefan Ruzowitzky, a Festival guest. Eran Kolirin THE BAND'S VISIT (Israel) won the award for Best New Director. Eran was in attendance at the Opening Night Party sponsored by Hollywood Video.

This year's Best Documentary Award went to Alex Gibney TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (US) who was also the Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature. Topping the Short Film Awards was Belgian filmmaker and Oscar nominee Guido Thysn's TANGHI ARGENTINI.
PIFF 31 OREGON LIVE AUDIENCE AWARDS

FEATURE FILMS

1. EMPTIES (CZECH REPUBLIC) JAN SVERÁK BEST FEATURE AWARD
2. THE VISITOR (US) TOM MCCARTHY
3. THE COUNTERFEITERS (AUSTRIA) STEFAN RUZOWITZKY
4. THE BAND'S VISIT(ISRAEL) ERAN KOLIRIN BEST NEW DIRECTOR
AWARD
5. THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (GERMANY) FATIH AKIN
6. 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS (ROMANIA) CRISTIAN MUNGIU
7. TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (US) ALEX GIBNEY BEST DOCUMENTARY
AWARD
8. XXY (ARGENTINA) LUCÍA PUENZO
9. THE ART OF NEGATIVE THINKING (NORWAY) BÅRD BREIEN
(tie) TELL NO ONE (FRANCE) GUILLAUME CANET
10. UNDER THE SAME MOON (MEXICO) PATRICIA RIGGEN
11. GETTING HOME (HONG KONG) ZHANG YANG
(tie) THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION (BRAZIL)
CAO HAMBURGER
12. GATES (US) ANTONIO FERRERA, ALBERT MAYSLES
13. FOREVER (NETHERLANDS) HEDDY HONIGMANN
14. MONGOL (KAZAKHSTAN) SERGEI BODROV
(tie) THE TRAP (SERBIA)SRDAN GOLUBOVIC
15. IN BRUGES (GREAT BRITAN) MARTIN MCDONAGH
16. PRICELESS (FRANCE) PIERRE SALVADORI
17. BEAUFORT (ISRAEL) JOSEPH CEDAR
18. OSS 117:CAIRO (FRANCE) MICHAEL HAZANAVICIUS
19. IRINA PALM (BELGIUM) SAM GARBARSKI
20. NOT BY CHANCE (BRAZIL) PHILIPPE BARCINSKI

SHORT FILMS

1. TANGHI ARGENTINI (BELGIUM) GUIDO THYSN BEST SHORT AWARD
2. SPIDER (AUSTRALIA) NASH EDGERTON
3. AMERICAN/SANDINISTA(US) JASON BLALOCK
4. THE SUBSTITUTE(ITALY) ANDREA JUBLIN
5. POP FOUL (US) MOON MOLSON
6. MADAME TUTLI PUTLI (CANADA) CHRIS LAVIS, MACIEK SZCZERBOWSKI