Austin Film Festival

WILLIAM NIX is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lone Star Entertainment Ventures and its affiliated company, Signature Entertainment, both of which are motion picture, television, music, interactive games and live entertainment and event content venture, production and distribution groups, with offices in Austin and Los Angeles. These companies work to raise capital and executive produce, license and distribute in all these major entertainment media. Lone Star and Mr. Nix were instrumental in obtaining the 2007 enactment of tax credit and rebate incentive legislation for Texas to foster the production of film, television and interactive digital media and they are actively working with other states and on the federal and international level in support of such measures as well. 

Mr. Nix was the Executive Producer of “Firedancer,” a film about the Afghan Diaspora in the U.S. and the first Afghan feature film to be submitted for Oscar consideration, that had its world premiere in Kabul and its U.S. premiere at the Tribecca Film Festival in New York and served in the same capacity on the companion documentary, “Return to Afghanistan” that premiered at the U.N. Film Festival in New York in October 2007.  He also served as both production counsel and Executive Producer for the Spanish-language documentary feature, “!Ya Basta!” that premiered at SXSW in March 2007, which focused on the abduction phenomenon in Mexico.  Serving as Executive Producer, he is currently in pre-production on a feature film entitled “Gibran: The Prophet” which is slated for principal photography in the U.S. and the Middle East for 2009 and is also Executive Producer for a reality television show, which is currently in pre-production, involving one of the major sports leagues and its teams, that is targeted for production beginning in the Summer of 2009. He is also in development to write, produce and direct a documentary, currently entitled “Paparazzi,” reviewing the historical and current role and practices of celebrity and public figure coverage.

In private practice before founding LSEV and Signature, he was Co-Chair of the BakerBotts Entertainment, Media and Sports Law Practice Group, where he represented clients in intellectual property, entertainment, sports, and Internet/new media law.  Mr. Nix is the former Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs for NBA Properties, Inc., where he had worldwide legal and business responsibilities for the commercial development, marketing, and protection of the trademarked and copyrighted properties of the NBA and its teams. Before joining NBA Properties, Mr. Nix was with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for sixteen years. In his most recent position, he served as Senior Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer of its Worldwide Anti-Piracy Division. This group guards the copyrights and trademarks against counterfeiting, illegal duplication, broadcast/cable/satellite signal theft and unauthorized performances, in all media, for the major motion picture and television studios During his tenure, he engineered the expansion of this industry enterprise to one that is currently active in over 65 countries, with nearly 1,500 employees and representatives with a $25 million annual operating budget that he oversaw during his tenure.

Mr. Nix has published and lectured widely, and been interviewed extensively by the television, radio, and print press in the United States and internationally  He will be teaching in the Entertainment Studies Program at UCLA during 2009 and has studied there in its Film, Television and Digital Entertainment Production degree program. He is a lifetime voting-member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and served on its Documentary Feature Film Award Nominating Committee, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ,the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences and the International Documentary Association, having served on its 2008 Documentary Feature Nominating Jury.  He is also on the Boards of Advisors/Directors of the Austin Film Festival, Project GRAD USA, The Peter Pan Children’s Fund and Paramount Business Jets.

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