A Fantastic Interview With Fantastic Fest's Tim League

Jordan Hoffman:  Can you describe the aesthetic of the Alamo Drafthouse films, or the Fantastic Film films? How do I know this is a Fantastic film and this isn't?

Tim League: Well, the spectrum is a little wide, but if you were to narrow it down to the films there we're really passionate in the program, we love films that are really fun but are still great movies. They have an interesting storyline and are a little bit out of the ordinary. Either bizarre or weird, but still have really well flushed out characters and stories. So that's the kind of the film that makes me excited, but we're a genre film festival so we also have to have the straight and narrow. We have to have a pretty broad selection of genre. We are going to deliver the goods, of horror movies, which I like as well, but not as passionate about. I don't think it's the identity of the festival that we're attracting.

Jordan Hoffman: Meaning there enough genre festivals out there? I even hate the word genre in that context anyhow; I was going to ask you about that. When you hear the phrase genre film, what is a genre film?

Tim League: I don't hate it, but I do think it's a bizarre word. Like genre, what does that mean? Everything is a genre.

Jordan Hoffman: Sense and Sensibility is a genre; it's the genre of women talking in a room! I saw the Housemaid here at Fantastic Fest, is that a genre film? David Cronenberg is considered a genre filmmaker, is Dead Ringers a genre film?

Tim League: I think people need a term to categorize something, so if there was a better term for horror, science fiction, fantasy, action and just supremely weird movies; I would totally use that, but right now I'm using the word genre to encompass that.

Jordan Hoffman: This festival is getting bigger; it's getting more and more attention nation wide. I also love the fact that this is happening concurrently with the New York Film Festival in New York. Coming here for the first time is so inviting. I might know some people here, but even if I didn't I sit down and turn to the person next to me. Everyone is nice, friendly and wants to talk. The New York Film Festival is the complete opposite of that. First of all, the average citizen can't even get in. You have to be a hooked up with Lincoln Center. It's difficult to get tickets and overall it's a big pain in the ass. There's no friendly bar/restaurant/bowling alley next door like here. Programming it at this time of year, did you have the New York Film Festival in your sights when picking this week?

Tim League: No and we've run head-to-head with them on a couple films. They're also aggressive about it 'must be a premiere' so whatever. . .There are a lot of festivals worldwide, Toronto's Midnight Madness is like the big boy in town, or in the world, and so we were right after Toronto and right before Stiges.  So what we do with some big, high-profile films is they'll play Toronto, they'll leap into Fantastic Fest and go into Stiges - that's just the circuit. It's a little bit frightening when people shift their dates; Toronto shifted some of their dates a week before.