Twelve years ago the Asian Film Festival of Dallas was an informal gathering housed in donated spaces. Promotional materials consisted of black-and-white xerox hand-outs and raw enthusiasm.

Since then it's grown and matured into a destination festival with sponsorship by McDonald's and Well Go USA, a distribution company specializing in Asian cinema. They have a strong PR presence; an active, volunteer-run board; and a reputation for sniffing out rare and wonderful films that Dallas wouldn't see otherwise. It's become so popular within its market that AFFD ups its venue from Magnolia to the Angelika this year, and will add a second screening room for opening weekend of its eight-day run.