PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Looking for ways to bridge creative communities in Portland and beyond, a team of local film festival veterans are bringing a new international film fest to the Rose City.

From April 10-20, Portland Panorama will unfold in a two-part film festival, with the first half of the festival focused on international film screenings before transitioning into a showcase of Pacific Northwest-made films — with screenings scattered around Portland from Cinema 21 and McMenamins’ Kennedy School to the Hollywood Theatre.

The inaugural fest will also host a gamut of events, from panels with filmmakers to filmmaking courses — and, yes — parties.

The team behind Portland Panorama is aiming to fill a void after the Portland International Film Festival and the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival were phased out during the pandemic and hope to establish an international filmmaking hub.

“There’s just been a hole in the community,” Portland Panorama Executive Director Stephanie Hough told KOIN 6 News. “I work with Women in Film, and we were producing a community screening showcase called ‘Rise’ with the Catalyst Film Collective, and it just seemed like folks were ready to start gathering again and we needed an international festival again.”

With the name Portland Panorama, Hough explains, “we felt like ‘panorama’ ties into our beautiful scenery here in Oregon and also just kind of like a panoramic view of the diverse stories and voices that we’re showcasing,” adding, “An alliteration always helps.”

“We’re really trying to showcase independent filmmaking and underrepresented voices and a new perspective,” added Portland Panorama Director of Programming Melina Kiyomi Coumas.

Showcasing international and local talent goes back to Hough and Coumas’ ties to the industry as filmmakers themselves and having worked film festivals in Oregon and around the world.

“My father was a projectionist in movie theaters and my mom traveled a lot for work. I remember being very small growing up in Central Oregon, my brother and I would take our sleeping bags, and we would spend the night up in the projection booth while my dad would load film platters. We were just big movie fans in our home growing up,” Hough said.

“As a filmmaker, my journey started when I was young, called to the medium, and then I started working in film festivals when I was 15 or 16 with the Bend Film Festival over where I grew up and came over to Portland, started working at the Northwest Film Center and it’s just been a part of my life ever since,” Hough added.

“I’ve always loved watching films ever since I was a kid, and for a long time, as a teenager, I thought I wanted to be an actress and then I realized it’s really not for me. So, kind of in college, I shifted in terms of being (behind) the camera,” Coumas said.

Now, starting their own festival, the team said they received an overwhelming number of film submissions before they landed on screening 125 films over the 10-day fest.

“We had a couple of specific categories that were only for Northwest filmmakers and residents,” Coumas said. “We really wanted to encourage our local creators and filmmakers to submit all their works because we haven’t really gotten to see many people’s films in the past three years or so.”

The festival lineup includes a range of films from the festival opener “Ponyboi,” a New Jersey-made film selected by Sundance, and the 2025 Oscar winner “I’m Not a Robot,” before the fest closes with the Portland-made “Trash Baby,” a Portland-made coming-of-age drama that saw its world premiere at SXSW.

“We’ve got feature films, premieres, Academy Award-winning and nominated films. We have visiting filmmakers, special showcases, live music, parties, panels, discussions, music videos, there’s really something for everything,” Hough said. “We tried to keep it small this year, but we couldn’t help ourselves.”

Portland Panorama prides itself as being a fest “built by artists, for artists,” Hough explained, “As a filmmaker myself, and someone who has worked a lot of film festivals across the country and have attended a lot of festivals and screenings, I’m trying to keep in mind, ‘What’s in it for the filmmakers and the artists?’” noting, Portland Panorama will also include workshops for filmmakers on topics such as on-set safety, mental wellness and intimacy coordination.

With days before Portland Panorama begins, Hough hopes the fest will create a space for artists to connect and “people being able to expand their perspective on a variety of topics and learn about issues they might not be aware of and see things from other folks’ viewpoints.”

“There’s a lot going on in the world right now that’s pretty daunting and I think right now, more than ever, we need to celebrate the arts and have places where community can gather in safe and joyous places,” Hough said.

“I am hoping people will take away a sense of community after the festival as well,” Coumas added. “There’s so many artistic groups operating throughout Portland that sometimes they don’t really overlap or collaborate, and I am really hoping that through this festival, we can kind of bridge that gap between film, and art and music.”

Hough added, “When you get a bunch of filmmakers and artists together in the same room, you never know what’s going to happen and those are exciting moments for me, where I see people who didn’t maybe know each other before they connect and maybe by next year, they’ve created something new together for next year’s Panorama.”