Buzzworthy movies will open and close the Three Rivers Film Festival next month but four dozen-plus other features will be sandwiched between.

They range from a Korean sexy vampire comedy called "Thirst" to a historical drama about "The Young Victoria," set when the queen ascended to the throne with a 20-inch waist (not the 56 inches of her recently photographed knickers) as well as movies with Pittsburgh connections.

"Freedom House: Street Saviors" chronicles the paramedic pioneers recruited from Pittsburgh's unemployed, while "In Service: Pittsburgh to Iraq" allows soldiers who dodged IEDs and interrogated Saddam Hussein to tell their stories.

Festivalgoers who favor films sizzling with star power will find an archival print of "The Blue Angel" with Marlene Dietrich, "The Messenger" featuring Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson as Army officers who deliver devastating news to families, and the dark comedy "Serious Moonlight" with Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell and Justin Long.

As previously announced, the festival will open Nov. 6 with "Precious," "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" and "If It Ain't Broke, Break It." It will close Nov. 21 with a new print of 1929's "Man With a Movie Camera" and live accompaniment by Boston's Alloy Orchestra.

Festival films will play at the Regent Square Theater in Edgewood, Downtown's Harris Theater and Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Melwood Screening Room in Oakland. You can buy tickets for all movies starting today at 10 a.m.

Single tickets are $8 (special prices apply for opening and closing night events) and can be purchased through www.proartstickets.org or, if available, the theater 30 minutes before showtime.

Go to www.3RFF.com to download a schedule or find more ticket information, locations, subtitle details and other essentials about these titles:

• "American Harmony" -- Documentary about the International Championships of Barbershop Singing, where four quartets compete in the closest, most controversial finish in 70 years.

• "Araya" -- Restored print of Margot Benacerraf's tone poem about salt workers and fishermen on the Araya peninsula in Venezuela.

• "The Baker" -- Dark comedy about a hit man who starts over as a baker in Wales but runs into complications when the villagers learn his identity and want to hire him. Damian Lewis and Michael Gambon star.

• "Beeswax" -- Mumblecore master Andrew Bujalski turns his sights to twin sisters, one who uses a wheelchair and the other who is considering going overseas.

• "The Black Pirate" -- This 1926 silent swashbuckler starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. features a famous stunt in which he uses a knife to ride down a ship's sail. With live score by the Alloy Orchestra.

• "The Blue Angel" -- Marlene Dietrich is at her most seductive as a nightclub singer who destroys a repressed school teacher (Emil Jannings) in this landmark 1930 release.

• "Bronson" -- A true story inspired this drama about the metamorphosis of Mickey Peterson into Britain's most dangerous prisoner, with the borrowed name of Charles Bronson. Tom Hardy, most recently in Pittsburgh for "Warrior," stars.

• "Cafe Society" -- A rocking documentary about the history and development of cafe racer motorcycles, which blasted onto the streets of England in the 1950s.

• Canyon Cinema Presents, with Dominic Angerame -- Experimental Super 8mm, 16mm, 35mm and digital works.

• "Carpet Racers: A Crash Course" -- A Film Kitchen look at adults who race radio control cars (as big as a shoebox and capable of reaching 60 mph) for a living.

• "Cloud 9" -- Award-winning story of a 67-year old married woman who rediscovers passion and sexuality when she falls in love with a 76-year old man.

• "Died Young, Stayed Pretty" -- Rabble-rousing documentary about graphic designers and artists behind renaissance of indie-rock concert posters.

• "Dogtooth" -- Greek-born director Yorgos Lanthimos satirizes middle-class ethics with this film about the sexual and rebellious undercurrents in a home where three teens have been confined for life.

• "Earth Days"-- Robert Stone documentary about the dawn and development of the modern environmental movement.

• "Egon & Donci" -- Hungarian director Adam Magyar uses sounds and universal gestures, rather than dialogue, to tell the story about a would-be scientist and his meddling cat, sole inhabitants of a distant planet.

• "Exploding Girl" -- Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of legendary director Elia Kazan, is a cherubic college student who has epilepsy in this restrained indie film.

• "Freedom House: Street Saviors" -- Documentary about pioneering paramedics, recruited from Pittsburgh neighborhoods as early as 1967 and trained in such life-saving techniques as CPR.

• "His People" -- Philip Carli returns with live piano music accompanying this 1925 silent film about the sons of Russian-Jewish pushcart peddlers. One hides his background to become a lawyer, the other is a prizefighter using a phony name.

• "In Service: Pittsburgh to Iraq" -- First presented as a live performance in fall 2007, this hour-long film allows Western Pennsylvanians to share their wartime experiences.

• "The Joy of Singing" -- French spy comedy about secret agents who go undercover in an opera class to get closer to a woman who may have a valuable USB key sought by international thugs.

• "Laila's Birthday" -- Comedic portrait of a day in the life of an experienced judge turned taxi driver trying to navigate life in contemporary Ramallah.

• "Lake Tahoe" -- Escape is the theme of this Mexican film about a teenage boy who crashes his family's car and whose search for help leads him to an eclectic cast of characters.

• "Let Each One Go Where He May" -- Thirteen 10-minute-long tracking shots of two unnamed brothers tracing the footsteps of their ancestors who escaped from slavery 300 years earlier. From experimental filmmaker Ben Russell.

• "Mazes" -- Russell, again, joins musician Joe Grimm in an experimental art performance with double 16mm projection, photo-sensitive electronics and film loops.

• "The Messenger" -- Ben Foster is an Army casualty affairs officer who, with a partner (Woody Harrelson), informs next of kin about combat deaths. Against all rules, he befriends a soldier's widow.

• "Munyurangabo" -- Modern-day Rwanda provides the backdrop for this tale of friendship and forgiveness.

• "No. 4 Street of Our Lady" -- The story of Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish Catholic woman who risked her life to save 15 Jews during the Holocaust, including eight members of filmmaker Judy Maltz's family. She and her fellow filmmakers are full-time Penn State faculty members.

• "North Face" -- Adventure tale, based on a true story about a competition to climb the most dangerous rock face in the Alps in 1936.

• "The Paranoids" -- Offbeat comedy about an aspiring screenwriter in Buenos Aires who learns his best friend has produced a TV show inspired by his life.

• "Rachel Is" -- Charlotte Glynn chronicles a year in the life of her sister, Rachel, who is mentally retarded and challenges their CMU prof mother on a daily basis.

• "Serious Moonlight" -- Cheryl Hines makes her directorial debut with a screenplay by Adrienne Shelly ("Waitress") about a lawyer, a philandering husband, his younger girlfriend and drunken burglars.

• "Somers Town" -- Two teenagers, both newcomers to London, forge an unlikely friendship over the course of a hot summer in this black-and-white film.

• "Stay the Same Never Change" -- Controversial video artist Laurel Nakadate goes to Kansas City to explore teenage girls' longing and search for identity.

• "Still Walking" -- Comedy-drama, set in a Japanese suburb, as three generations convene to mark the 15th anniversary of a favored son's death.

• "Tahaan" -- A fable about an 8-year-old boy's journey to find meaning and purpose and his pet donkey, seized from his family in the Kashmir valley.

• "Terribly Happy" -- When a Copenhagen police officer suffers a nervous breakdown and is transferred to a small provincial town, he gets mixed up with a married femme fatale.

• "Thirst" -- A selfless priest, given tainted blood, becomes a vampire in this film from director Park Chan-wook ("Old Boy," "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance") that was a box-office hit in Korea.

• "The Vanished Empire" -- Winner of two Golden Eagles, Russia's version of Oscars, this is a coming-of-age tale and love letter to 1970s Soviet life about a teen love triangle.

• Video Data Bank -- Abina Manning, director of Video Data Bank, will present highlights of new releases from the Chicago media art center.

• "We Live in Public" -- Ten years in the making and culled from 5,000 hours of footage, it shows the effect the Web is having on society through Internet pioneer Josh Harris, who lived under 24-hour electronic surveillance.

• "A Woman in Berlin" -- Set in 1945 during the Red Army invasion of Berlin when women are victims of rape and degradation and one, in particular, looks for a protector.

• "The Yes Men Fix the World" -- The trouble-making Yes Men set their sights on manmade disasters from Katrina to Bhopal.

• "The Young Victoria" -- Emily Blunt dons the royal robes as young Queen Victoria as she ascends to the throne and weighs who she can trust ... and love.

• "Youssou N'dour: I Bring What I Love" -- Music-infused cinematic journey about the power of one man's voice to inspire change.

• Shorts -- Thirteen shorts, selected from 130 local, national and international submissions, in contention for first, second and third prizes in four categories.

Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Dollar Bank are presenting the 28th annual festival, which also is partnering with the Polish Cultural Council to bring five Polish films to the event. They are:

• "Scratch" -- A political drama about accusations that threaten a 40-year marriage and illuminate the ongoing effects of state intervention in private lives.

• "Little Moscow" -- A look at the Soviet army's occupation of Poland, which won five Eagles (Poland's top film honors), including best screenplay for Waldemar Krzystek.

• "How Much Does the Trojan Horse Weigh?" -- Time-travel comedy about a 40-year-old woman transported back to 1987 that uses the device to chart Poland's transition from communism to capitalism.

"General Nil" -- Drama honoring the tactical skills and bravery of forgotten World War II hero Emil Fieldorf, code name "Nil."

• "Case Unknown" -- Agnieska Holland co-wrote this political thriller about a young psychiatrist who discovers the files of a patient suffering from amnesia have disappeared. When he brings the patient home, he discovers secrets that jeopardize his personal and professional lives.

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