Launched in 2001 by TLA Entertainment Group in Philadelphia, TLA Releasing is dedicated to broadening the choices available to film lovers by specializing in quality independent, international and gay/lesbian-themed films by distributing them in theaters and on home video.

TLA Releasing distributes International and American films in North America and United Kingdom. Many are multiple-award winners or nominees, such as France’s A Matter of Taste (five César nominations), Spain’s 800 Bullets (four Goya Awards) and the United States’ The Trip (13 various festival awards). Additionally, many films are crowd pleasers, like the immensely popular Latter Days, the critically acclaimed Bear Cub and the spicy Spanish comedy Km. 0 (Kilometer Zero).

TLA stands for Theatre of the Living Arts, which began in the early 1960s as an experimental theatre group founded under the direction of Andre Gregory (of My Dinner with Andre fame) and included actors Danny DeVito, Judd Hirsch, Sally Kirkland and Ron Leibman. In 1971 the venue became a repertory cinema presenting International, Independent and cult films. The cinema closed in 1980 but in 1981 several former employees (including the current partners today) bought the cinema and re-opened it as a nationally recognized venue with a vision to bring all types of cinema to film lovers.

Along with owning five video stores in the Philadelphia area, TLA operates an extremely popular website, TLA Video and has edited two books: The "TLA Film Video & DVD Guide: A Discerning Film Lover's Guide" released annually each Fall until 2005 by St. Martin's Press, and company founder and president Raymond Murray’s "Images in the Dark: An Encyclopedia of Gays and Lesbians in Film and Video."