Tim League is an American entrepreneur and film producer based in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. He is the founder of the

Alamo Drafthouse Cinema The Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is an American cinema chain founded in 1997 in Austin, Texas, which is famous for serving dinner and drinks during the film, as well as its strict policy of requiring its audiences to maintain proper cinema-going etiq ...

chain and the founder of

Drafthouse Films Drafthouse Films is an independent film distribution company based in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 2010 by Tim League, who had previously founded the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain. Drafthouse has released a variety of films since its incepti ...

, a film distribution company, where he produced '' The ABCs of Death'' and other films He is co-founder of

Fantastic Fest Fantastic Fest is an annual film festival in Austin, Texas, focused on fantasy, horror, sci-fi, action and cult films, the largest genre festival in the United States. It was founded in 2005 by Tim League of Alamo Drafthouse. Lisa Dreyer ...

, a film festival, Mondo, an entertainment merchandise company, and

Neon Neon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is the second noble gas in the periodic table. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with approximately two-thirds the density of ...

, a film production and distribution company.

Early life and education

League graduated from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

in 1992 with degrees in mechanical engineering and art history. While at Rice, he was detained by campus police for interrupting a campus event while dressed as a banana.

Career

After a two-year stint at

Shell Oil Company Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States–based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation " oil major" which is among the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,000 ...

Bakersfield, California Bakersfield is a city in and the county seat of Kern County, California, United States. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, which is located in the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's population as of th ...

, he left the engineering profession and opened up his first movie theater. An unmitigated financial disaster, the Tejon theater closed in 1995, and he loaded a truck with 200 seats, a projector, screen, and speakers, and relocated to

, where he launched

, where he remained as CEO until 2020 when he was replaced by Shelli Taylor. He took up the new position as executive chairman of the board. Asked about his motivation to open a movie theater in 2012, League said, "What we set out to do in the very beginning was to make a movie theater by fans for fans. And we got into the business because we love movies and we got a little frustrated with our options as to what the movie theater experience was all about". League founded the Rolling Roadshow, which takes classic films around the country to project them at the sites they were set in. In 2004, League co-founded entertainment merchandiser Mondo to produce and distribute limited-edition poster art, t-shirts, toys, and

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, ...

soundtracks. Fantasticfest2023

In 2005, League,

Harry Knowles Harry Jay Knowles (born December 11, 1971) is an American former film critic and writer known for his website ''Ain't It Cool News'' (AICN). Knowles was a member of the Austin Film Critics Association until he was removed in September 2017 "b ...

, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, and Tim McCanlies co-founded

, the largest genre

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

in the United States. Held annually at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in

, the festival focuses on such genres as horror,

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

action Action may refer to: * Action (philosophy), something which is done by a person * Action principles the heart of fundamental physics * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video gam ...

, Asian, and

cult Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...

. In 2007, '' Variety'' publisher Charles Koones included Fantastic Fest as one of "ten festivals we love". In 2008, ''

MovieMaker ''MovieMaker'' is a magazine, website and podcast network focused on the art and business of filmmaking with a special emphasis on independent film and film festivals. The magazine is published on a quarterly basis, and is known for the annual l ...

'' magazine named Fantastic Fest "one of the 25 film festivals worth the entry fee". The 2017 festival attracted attention when it was disclosed that League had rehired Devin Faraci as a writer even though Faraci had resigned from ''Birth.Movies.Death'' in 2016 after being accused of

sexual assault Sexual assault is an act of sexual abuse in which one intentionally Physical intimacy, sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or Coercion, coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their w ...

. Faraci's rehiring prompted the resignation of Todd Brown, Fantastic Fest's director of international programming. Fantastic Fest subsequently severed ties with Harry Knowles after

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment based on the sex or gender of a victim. It can involve offensive sexist or sexual behavior, verbal or physical actions, up to bribery, coercion, and assault. Harassment may be explicit or implicit, wit ...

and assault allegations were levied against him. Alamo Drafthouse nevertheless proceeded with plans to show a previously unreleased

pornographic film Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, adult films, blue films, sexually explicit films, or 18+ films, are films that represent Human sexual activity, sexually WIKT:explicit, explicit subject matter in order to sexual arousal, arouse, fasci ...

Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novelist. In the 1950s, Wood directed several B movie, low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult c ...

Drafthouse Films

In 2010, League founded the film distribution and production company known as

Neon

In 2017, League co-founded distribution and production company

(stylized as "NEON") with entertainment executive Tom Quinn. Neon's films, including ''

Parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...

'' and '' I, Tonya'', have won several Academy Awards.

Criticism

In 2017, concurrent with the revelations regarding Devin Faraci and Harry Knowles's harassment of women, former Alamo Drafthouse employees alleged that they had complained to League and his wife Karrie about Knowles in previous years. They were told simply to "avoid" Knowles. These purported incidents go as far back as 2000. In late September 2017, League issued a statement apologizing on his and Karrie's behalf "To the women we have let down...".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:League, Tim Living people American film producers Rice University alumni Shell plc people Theatre owners Year of birth missing (living people)