About Us

The Northwest Film Center is a non-profit regional media arts resource and service organization founded to encourage the study, appreciation, and utilization of the moving image arts, to foster their artistic and professional excellence, and to help create a climate in which they may flourish.

PRESENTING FILM

Whitsell Auditorium—Located inside the Portland Art Museum, the state-of-the-art Whitsell Auditorium serves as the primary venue for Film Center programs. With an annual attendance of more than 80,000, the Film Center presents approximately 1,000 screenings and 100 guest artist appearances.
Film Festivals—Annual film festivals include the Portland International Film Festival (February), the Portland Jewish Film Festival (April), the Reel Music Festival (October), the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival (November), and the Young People’s Film Festival (September & November).

TEACHING FILM

School of Film—One of the largest community-based film arts programs in the country, the School of Film offers intensive hands-on classes and workshops in film production to 1,500 emerging artists, teachers, vocational adult learners, kids, and teens annually. Faculty members are award-winning media artists. Partnering higher education institutions co-offer college degree options.
Young Filmmakers Outreach—In K-12 classrooms, in after-school settings, on our School of Film campus, and on location in the community, the Young Filmmakers Outreach Program promotes media literacy as a core skill for the next generation. More than 500 students are served annually—half of them members of low-income, minority, and/or underserved communities.

SUPPORTING FILMMAKERS

Filmmaker Services—In addition to its exhibition and teaching opportunities for regional artists, the Film Center circulates traveling exhibition programs featuring work by regional artists, administers media arts fellowship programs, conducts the regional jurying of the Academy Student Film Awards, serves as a fiscal agent for independent producers in need of non-profit sponsorship, and offers low-cost equipment access and consulting services to community producers—with more than 750 artists served annually.

THE NORTHWEST FILM CENTER IS FUNDED IN PART BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS, OREGON ARTS COMMISSION, OREGON CULTURAL TRUST, REGIONAL ARTS & CULTURE COUNCIL, THE TED R. GAMBLE FILM ENDOWMENT, THE ROSE E. TUCKER CHARITABLE TRUST, ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURES ARTS & SCIENCES, MT. HOOD CABLE REGULATORY COMMISSION, AND THE SUPPORT OF MEMBERS, FRIENDS, & PROGRAM SPONSORS.