AFI Dallas grows in second year

The high society of Dallas puts its money where its art is. Eighteen square blocks in the budding downtown Arts District are devoted to 13 different multimillion-dollar disciplines, including the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Dallas Museum of Art and the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.

So when founder Liener Temerlin announced the creation of the AFI Dallas Intl. Film Festival last year, he knew the level it had to aspire to: "From day one, we will be a major international film festival."

That lofty boast was followed by a splashy 2007 inaugural event, and while the program wasn't surprising to fest circuit regulars, the gift-wrap was. Artistic director Michael Cain, who left the respected Deep Ellum Film Fest, had always wanted to woo filmmakers in ways he couldn't for his former employer -- a scrappy, nonprofit affair.

"I knew we couldn't guarantee that they'd get distribution," says Cain about AFI Dallas, "but we could guarantee they'd be treated like kings and queens."

True to form, filmmakers participating in that maiden voyage found gift cases of wine in their glamorous W Hotel rooms, along with professional venues, slick parties and an appreciative audience.

"It's Dallas, so I had high expectations -- and the festival surpassed them," says Texas-native Amy Talkington, who brought her Dallas-set comedy "The Night of the White Pants" (starring Tom Wilkinson) to the inaugural edition. "It was a finely tuned machine."

After sold-out screenings, the "Pants" producers decided to use the exposure to four-wall a screen at the Angelika Film Center.

"We only booked a week," she says, "but did so well that we ended up staying for five."

This year, AFI Dallas opens with a long-running fest fave that has the added advantage of a star helmer. Helen Hunt's "Then She Found Me" will screen at a black-tie gala, followed by a glitzy party inside Neiman Marcus, Dallas' signature luxury store.

The audience of boots and furs will also watch the fest dole out AFI Dallas Star Awards to Charlize Theron, Jack Lemmon (to be presented to his widow, actress Felicia Farr), Mickey Rooney and Dallas-based 2929 Prods.' Todd Wagner. "What Just Happened?," which Wagner produced, will run as a Centerpiece Screening, with director Barry Levinson and star Robert De Niro in attendance.

As the star wattage increases, so does the program, jumping to 210 films from 34 countries, compared with last year's 194 films repping 22 countries. The Target Ten narrative and doc programs will have films like Amy Redford's "The Guitar" and David Modigliani's doc "Crawford" competing for two unrestricted cash prizes of $25,000.

Cain is all too aware of AFI Dallas' greenhorn status in the fest world. While numbers on the event's economic impact on the city aren't available, 30,000 people attended last year's event. This year, Cain projects 45,000 patrons.

How does he outlast the novelty of newness?

"To me, it's all centered on programming," he explains. "You got to have great programming. But it's also about staying relevant." He points to the festival's Family Friendly and Environmental screenings as examples.

Cain also is respectful of his neighbors. The fest ruffled feathers in the first year by staking dates close to other Texas fests; it unspools only a few weeks after SXSW and just before Worldfest Houston. Cain reached out to them, explaining that the dates were a reflection of AFI's calendar. Los Angeles' AFI Fest runs in October, while the institute's Silverdocs event screens in June. Factor in Cannes, Sundance, Berlin and Toronto, and Cain says there wasn't much of a choice.

However, he doesn't consider AFI Dallas a competitor. "We only shared 17 films with SXSW," he says. "There's certainly enough to go around. And I'm really not one that believes we need premieres. I just want the people of Dallas to meet the filmmakers."