The Butt-Numb-A-Thon was an annual film marathon held every December since 1999 in Austin, Texas. It was hosted by Harry Knowles of the Ain't It Cool News website in celebration of his birthday. The festival showed 24 hours of vintage films as well as premieres. Following revelations of sexual assault accusations against Knowles in September 2017, the festival ceased.
Event admission
The marathon was invite-only via an application process. Before BNAT 5 in 2003, there were typically two ways to gain admittance – one for Austin residents that usually involved some event, such as BNAT 4 in 2002 having a costume contest at a horror movie screening at an abandoned mental institution on Halloween, then a separate one for those not in the Central Texas area. After BNAT 5, the application process was changed to internet-only involving several essay-style questions and submissions of pictures.
Films and notable guests
Films that were shown include the first public screening of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, as well as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Dreamgirls,Chicago,Black Snake Moan,Snatch,Magnolia,Knocked Up,Frozen, 300,V for Vendetta, , and the 2005 remake of King Kong. Guests have included Mel Gibson, Zack Snyder, Peter Jackson, Seth Rogen, Adam Green, Eli Roth, Craig Brewer, Bill Condon, Vin Diesel, Guillermo Del Toro, Jackie Earle Haley, McG and C. Robert Cargill. Some celebrity guests, such as Eli Roth, Rian Johnson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Laura Harris and Elijah Wood have attended the event, even though they may not have any films exhibited. Though he was not present for the screening of King Kong in 2005, Peter Jackson introduced the film with a video-taped message in which he was seen pointing at various locations inside the Drafthouse theater, such as the stage area and specific seats, showing intimate knowledge of the theater from previous visits.
Style
While BNAT was home to numerous special screenings and celebrity guest appearances, as much or more significant to explaining the thrust and tone of this event is the many other movies that have been screened, as well as the unique impact of seeing 12-13 films and 30-40 vintage film trailers back-to-back over a 24-hour period without ever leaving the confines of the movie theater. BNAT featured such events as having a live jug band accompaniment to Buster Keaton's silent classic The General, the delivery of fresh meat pies to attendees during the early screening of , shot glasses of caviar and vodka given to attendees to mirror a scene in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and the use of electrically shocking devices to zap sleeping audience members during an intentionally interminable 3:00am viewing of 1950s film Attack of the Gila Monster.
Location
Butt-Numb-A-Thon was held annually in Austin, Texas, for the first eight years at the Alamo Drafthouse's original downtown location at 409 Colorado St. In 2007, BNAT 9 was held at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz location at 310 E. Sixth Street. After 2008, the festival was held at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar at 1120 South Lamar Boulevard. BNAT 15 in 2013 was held at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz location while the Alamo Drafthouse Lamar underwent renovation. On June 24, 2007, as an acknowledgment of the last days of the Alamo Drafthouse's original downtown location, Harry Knowles hosted a hastily assembled half-birthday marathon titled "Half-Ass-A-Thon". Half-Ass-A-Thon was to initially only show four features, but by unanimous vote of the audience the marathon was extended to five features.
End of festival
Following revelation a few days prior of allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment against Knowles, the Alamo Drafthouse, which served as the venue for BNAT, announced on Sept. 25, 2017 that it was cutting all ties with Knowles. Knowles himself stepped down from contributing to his website Aint-it-cool-News in the aftermath of the charges.
