James Emanuel Shapiro has been an executive in film for almost 20 years and recently moved to Austin, TX from Los Angeles to start the analytics division at the Alamo Drafthouse and handles their film rental negotiations and accounting. James has formerly been the Chief Operating Officer at NEON and remains in that position for the dormant Drafthouse Films. He accumulated six Academy Award nominations while working at both companies. While on furlough from the Alamo Drafthouse, James has been consulting for Cinestate and Dallas Sonnier as a key voice in their self distribution efforts. James started managing video stores while attending Brandeis University for a Master’s degree and eventually found his way to be Hollywood Video’s “B” title buyer and was proud to stock the nationwide chain with copies of THE PIANO TEACHER, OLDBOY, HIGH TENSION and LATTER DAYS. He was once disciplined in a company meeting for purchasing limited copies in select stores of Gaspar Noe’s IRREVERSIBLE. James is an avid fan of sports, rye, New Wave films, Galaxie 500, Michael Lewis and Bill James and owns three cats with his girlfriend Deb. James has been part of Fantastic Fest’s programming staff since 2014, is the head of their industry office, writes an occasional industry column for Birth.Movies.Death., can be found on twitter at @jamesemshapiro, and the capital of Nebraska is Lincoln.