by Michelle Paster
AFI FEST Daily News

AFI FEST 2006 Director Christian Gaines speaks at the Opening Night Gala Presentation of BOBBY, November 1, at Grauman's Chinese Theater. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

From Cannes to Sundance, Toronto to Tribeca, they all have a festival director.

Christian Gaines, Director of Festivals at the American Film Institute, has been with AFI since 2000. He oversees AFI FEST presented by Audi.

Over the last three years Gaines has been integral in establishing the AFI FEST partnership with the American Film Market. The partnership provides North America with the only concurrent festival-market film event.

It's only natural for Gaines to lead filmmakers, galas and red carpets into the highest ranks. His previous work for top film festivals includes Cannes, Hawaii and Sundance.

Gaines helped to start the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival in 1989, was Programmer for the 1995 and 1996 Sundance Film Festivals, and Programmer and subsequent Director for the Hawaii International Film Festival from 1996 to 2000.

A stint in the record industry after college led Gaines to A&M Records in Los Angeles.

He's not ashamed to admit: "I think I got fired at about the same time I quit. I wasn't trained as an administrative secretary. I was trained as an English Major out of Vassar." Thanks to this occurrence, Gaines found a path to film festivals.

At AFI FEST, Gaines looks forward to commemorating 20 years of the American Film Institute program plus another 15 of its famed precursor, FILMEX: Los Angeles Film Exposition.

The anniversary is a time to examine the history and the significance of putting on an international film festival.

"In this world where technology is changing digital production and distribution, where convenience to access of films has never been greater, there is something important about the cultural and communal activity of watching movies," Gaines attests.

"It's truly a cornerstone of international and American popular culture."

In addition to the FILMEX tribute, AFI FEST brings together programming of Special Presentations, International Feature, Documentary and Short Competitions, Latin Cinema Series, Asian New Classics, World Cinema (the Middle East, Europe, India and Australia), American Directions, African Voices, Dark Horizons and Galas.

The US premiere of BOBBY (directed by Emilio Estevez) was the opening gala screening, followed by David Lynch's centerpiece gala INLAND EMPIRE, Darren Aronofsky's centerpiece gala THE FOUNTAIN and closing night's CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER from China's Zhang Yimou.

Gaines says, "When you are an audience member yielding to the experience of watching a two-hour film, that's the biggest compliment of all for a filmmaker. This is a way for the audience member to loose the control."

There is every opportunity present at the festival for both "casual film-goer who may go to a couple films, to the person highlighting and redlining the schedule where they'll burrow down to the center," Gaines notes.