Film is about connection. That’s why we’ve made it our mission to build a community where we can share and experience stories together. With our year-round screenings, education, community partnerships, and the largest film festival in North Texas, we bring film home.
Founded in 2006, we are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization sustained by more than 20,000 supporters, volunteers, corporations, grants and individual donors. We lead multiple educational initiatives to mentor excellence in film, television and digital media. And proudly support filmmakers, theatres and film organizations locally and globally.
James Faust likes to rock and watch movies. Not in that order. He began as the festival’s Senior Programmer at our inception back in 2006, when we were still called AFI DALLAS. That position followed programming roles with the Asian Film Festival of Dallas, The Austin Film Festival and Texas Black Film Festival. A die-hard Raiders fan, James received Telecommunication and Theatre degrees at Texas Tech University, which he followed up with a degree in Cinema Studies at Southern Methodist University. He has served on juries and panels all over the world speaking about film festival management, programming and marketing.