Editor

Oregon's biggest film celebration, this year's 29th Portland International Film Festival premieres outstanding world cinema from over three-dozen countries to diverse audiences who descend on the Northwest Film Center from throughout the region.

The Festival opens Friday, February 10, with an Opening Night Party and the first of 150+ screenings-16 days of world travel featuring new works by cinema masters and debuting directors. As always, a varied selection of Best Foreign Film Oscar submissions, family-friendly films, outstanding new documentaries and shorts from all over the globe-including "Animated Worlds," a showcase of work by Portland's internationally acclaimed animators-offer something for adventuresome film lovers and cultural travelers of all persuasions.

Among things to look for:

MERRY CHRISTMAS (FRANCE)
Christian Carion's telling of the legendary Christmas eve of 1914 when German, French and Scottish troops left their trenches for a brief moment of candlelight humanity. This year's French Oscar submission for Best Foreign Film.

LOOK BOTH WAYS (AUSTRALIA)
Sarah Watt's darkly comic meditation on life, love and death won the Best Film and Best Director prizes (Australian "Oscars") at this year's Australian Film Institute Awards.

TSOTSI (SOUTH AFRICA)
The emotional saga of six days in the life of a young Johannesburg gang leader. Winner of the Audience Prize at this year's Toronto Film Festival and a Golden Globe nominee for Best Foreign Language Film.

THE CHILD (BELGIUM)
Winner of the Golden Palm (Palm d'Or) at this year's Cannes Film Festival, the Dardenne Brothers (LA PROMESSE, THE SON) film tells the story of a young couple that sells their infant son with devastating repercussions.

SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE LAST DAYS (GERMANY)
German director Marc Rothemund's film recounts the formation of the underground anti-Nazi group "The White Rose" in 1942. This year's German Oscar submission.

THE PRESIDENT'S LAST BANG (SOUTH KOREA)
The fateful night of October 26, 1979 when the president of South Korea was assassinated at his own dinner table by the head of the KCIA.

THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE (US)
Gretchen Mol stars in Mary Harron's saucy portrait of 50s pinup queen Bettie Page.

SISTERS IN LAW (BRITAIN)
In the little town of Kumba, Cameroon, resolute prosecutor Vera Ngassa and Court President Batrice Ntuba are tireless advocates for the the downtrodden victims of family abuse.

THE SUN (RUSSIA)
Alexander Sokorov (Russian Ark) audacious meditation on Japanese Emperor Hirohito's painful renunciation of his divinity and transformation from deity to humbled man in surrendering Japan to General Douglas MacArthur in 1946.

THE GIANT BUDDHAS (SWITZERLAND)
In February 2001, the Taliban issued an edict that all non-Islamic statues be destroyed. Christian Frei's meandering inquiry explores the history leading up to the dynamiting of the 1600-year-old stone Buddhas in the Bamiyan Valley, the largest in the world.

BEST OF THE NORTHWEST
This program of a dozen short films from throughout the region highlights the
flourishing media community in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, BC.

ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL (US)
"Ghost World" and "Crumb" director Terry Zwigoff's new film, fresh from it's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, tells the sardonic story of an art student who dreams of being the most famous artist in the world.

The Festival schedule will hit the streets (and www.nwfilm.org) January 24 and tickets will go on sale February 2.