“We understood very well going into this year that the eyes of the city of Dallas, the film festival community across the country and the international film community would be on us as we and Dallas took true ownership of the festival,” said DALLAS Film Society Chairman Michael Cain. “So, it could not be more gratifying to once again deliver the programming, peerless presentation and hospitality that have built our reputation on from year one.”

The festival kicked off with an opening night gala presentation at the Angelika Film Center that aired a diverse collection of films, ranging from documentaries to narratives to shorts. The party then moved to the top floor of the Hotel Palomar, the space decked out to serve as the offical filmmaker lounge for the duration of the festival. Actor Bill Paxton was there to support longtime friend and fellow Fort Worth native Tom Huckabee, who wrote and directed the film Carried Away that premiered at the festival (one of my personal favorites, get an advanced copy at www.carriedawaythemovie.com.) A semi-autobiographical work that Huckabee wrote 20 years earlier, Carried Away is a touching story about a young man (played by Gabriel Horn), tired of seeing his mentally fading grandmother stuck in a Fort Worth nursing home, who decides to help her escape her “prison” and run away with him back to Los Angeles. The man’s father and brothers immediately give chase upon hearing about the breakout, and the roadtrip becomes a hilarious and incredibly moving game of cat and mouse.

DALLAS Star Award recipients included The Blind Side’s writer/director John Lee Hancock, Academy Award nominated director Frank Darabont of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, as well as cinematographer Wally Pfister of Batman Begins. The star-studded festival also welcomed a barrage of well known faces, including America Ferrera, Wilmer Valderrama, William Devane, Lou Diamond Phillips and Adrienne King, just to name a few. Beyond the red carpet appearances and screenings at the Angelika and Magnolia theaters, festival goers also enjoyed discussion panels presented by The Studios at Las Colinas that included panels with Hell Boy’s Doug Jones and “Prison Break” producer Garry Brown.