Chief Executive, President, American Film Institute
The flagship AFI film school continues to top college rankings, and Gazzale is also pursuing other initiatives. The Hollywood Hills-based nonprofit champions the moving image as an art form. In March of last year, the Disney/AFI Underrepresented Storytellers Initiative was launched to remove economic barriers for new filmmakers, and January 2023 saw the release of a comprehensive study, “Women They Talk About,” that credits the contributions women made during the silent-film era. In 2022, AFI’s Cinematography Intensive for Women workshop relaunched, and an educational partnership was formed with the Telluride Film Festival. Gazzale is a film historian and Emmy-winning producer. A native Californian, Gazzale is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he helped to launch the Virginia Festival of American Film in 1988. Gazzale served as Director of the festival until 1992, producing over 200 events with a focus on bringing together notables from academia and entertainment and honoring film icons such as the late James Stewart, Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston.
YEARS ON LA500: 6
