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The 32nd Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) will provide Portland audiences with an early look at four of this year's 2009 Oscar Nominees including two films in the Foreign Language Film category (REVANCHE and BAADER MEINHOFF COMPLEX) and two Short Film, Live Action nominees (MANON ON THE STREET and TOYLAND). Last year's 31st Portland International Film Festival included IN BRUGES, nominated for Best Writing in an Original Screenplay. MILK, nominated for awards such as Actor in a Leading Role, Best Directing and Best Picture screened in the Northwest Film Center's 35th Northwest Film & Video Festival last November.

List after the jump…

Götz Spielmann, Austria

"The ex-con Alex and his immigrant prostitute girlfriend Tamara are desperate to escape the dangerous brothel where they work. Robert is a police officer happily married to Ursula, the two enjoying the serene splendor of a farmhouse they've designed and built themselves. A botched robbery and a bullet fired astray set these characters on a collision course. What begins as a grim, melodramatic thriller soon spins into completely unexpected emotional territory as writer-director Götz Spielmann reveals the characters' wounded psyches and traces their uneven arcs of redemption. With its long, carefully composed medium shots, the film ventures into rich, temporal territory, exploring real matters of life and death. Is this the first Buddhist thriller?"—Telluride Film Festival. (121 mins.)

Uli Edel, Germany

Edel's riveting thriller chronicles the rise and fall of the left-wing militant group the Red Army Faction (RAF), which carried out an international terrorist campaign in the 1970s opposing American imperialism and the West German establishment. Based on Stefan Aust's definitive book about the group, Edel's film mixes tense action sequences with character studies, deftly exploring the contradictory mentality of a group that murdered over 30 public figures to thwart what they perceived as a new fascist state. An exceptional cast of young German actors, along with screen legend Bruno Ganz (portraying the head of the German police force charged with bringing the gang to justice), brings to life the chilling story of a political faction formed by radicalized children of the Nazi generation. (150 mins.)

Elizabeth Marre, Olivier Pont, France

After a bicycle accident, Manon has an out-of-body experience that gives her a new, birds-eye perspective of her life. (15 mins.)

Jochen Alexander Freydank, Germany

When a young boy's mother, responding to her son's question about the whereabouts of his best friend whose family has been sent to a concentration camp, tells her son that his friend has been sent to Toyland, the boy sneaks off to join him. (14 mins.)

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 Film & Video 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.

The full PIFF Program is available online January 23 at www.nwfilm.org.

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Related:

• Oscars: Milk is nominated For 8 awards Including Best Actor for Sean Penn
• Music or a movie? | The Reel Film Festival