James Schamus

James Allan Schamus (born September 7, 1959) is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the co-founder and former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. He is currently president of the New York–based production company Symbolic Exchange,^[1] and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989.

James Schamus
Schamus in 2016
Born	James Allan Schamus (1959-09-07) September 7, 1959 (age 65) Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Education	University of California, Berkeley (BA, MA, PhD)
Occupations	Producer screenwriter director
Spouse	Nancy Kricorian
Children	2

Life and career

Schamus was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a Jewish family.^[2] He is the son of Clarita (Gershowitz) Karlin and Julian John Schamus, and was raised in Los Angeles. He is married to writer Nancy Kricorian, with whom he has two children.

His output includes writing or co-writing The Ice Storm, Eat, Drink, Man, Woman, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hulk (all directed by Ang Lee), and producing Brokeback Mountain and Alone in Berlin. At Focus he oversaw the production and distribution of Lost in Translation, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Coraline, and The Kids Are All Right. In addition to his tenure at Columbia University, he has also taught at Yale University and at Rutgers University. He is the author of Carl Theodor Dreyer's Gertrud: The Moving Word, published by the University of Washington Press. He earned his BA, MA, and Ph.D. in English from University of California, Berkeley.^[3]

Schamus made his feature directorial debut with Indignation, an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel of the same name. Schamus also wrote the script for the film, which stars Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, and Tracy Letts, and is the story of a Jewish student at an Ohio college in 1951.^[4] The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, and was theatrically released by Roadside Attractions on July 29, 2016.^[1]

He was president of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.^[5] He has also been on the jury of the New York International Children's Film Festival,^[6] and has served on the editorial boards of Film Quarterly and Cinema Journal, as well as on the board of Creative Capital and the Heyman Center for the Humanities.^[7] In 2016, Outfest established the James Schamus Ally Award to honor individuals who give prominence to LGBTQ narratives, with winners including James Franco,^[8] Rita Moreno,^[9] Sandra Oh,^[10] Octavia Spencer,^[11] Andra Day,^[12] Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone,^[13] and Shirley MacLaine.^[14]

Filmography

Year	Title	Producer	Writer	Director	Notes
1990	The Golden Boat	Yes	No	Raúl Ruiz
1991	Pushing Hands	Yes	Yes	Ang Lee	Also additional scenes
	Poison	Executive	No	Todd Haynes
	Keep It For Yourself	Yes	No	Claire Denis
	Angry	Yes	No	Nicole Holofcener	Short film
	Homage By Assassination	Yes	No	Elia Suleiman
	Thank You and Good Night	Co-producer	No	Jan Oxenberg	Documentary
	I Was on Mars	Co-producer	No	Dani Levi	Also line producer
	Chicken Delight	Yes	No	Adam Isidore	Short film
	Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier	Executive	No	Suzie Baer	Documentary
1992	Swoon	Executive	No	Tom Kalin
	Punch and Judy Get Divorced[15]	Yes	No	David Gordon and Mark Pellington
	Ambition[16]	Yes	No	Hal Hartley	Short film
	Surviving Desire	Executive	No
	In the Soup	Associate	No	Alexandre Rockwell
1993	Terminal USA	Executive	No	Jon Moritsugu
	Dottie Gets Spanked	Executive	No	Todd Haynes	Also line producer
	Night Ride	Executive	No	Andy Garrison	Also line producer
	The Secret Life of Houses[17]	Executive	No	Adrian Velicescu
	A Psychic Mom	Executive	No	Steve Busa
	Love Potion	Executive	No	Ayoka Chenzira
	Family Remains	Executive	No	Tamara Jenkins
	The Wedding Banquet	Yes	Yes	Ang Lee
1994	Eat Drink Man Woman	Associate	Yes
	Dark Waters	Yes	No	Kutluğ Ataman
	Roy Cohn/Jack Smith	Yes	No	Jill Godmilow
	What Happened Was	Executive	No	Tom Noonan
1995	Sense and Sensibility	Co-producer	No	Ang Lee
	Greetings from Africa	Yes	No	Cheryl Dunye
	Safe	Executive	No	Todd Haynes
	The Brothers McMullen	Executive	No	Edward Burns
1996	She's the One	Yes	No
	Walking and Talking	Yes	No	Nicole Holofcener
1997	Love God	Executive	No	Frank Grow
	The Myth of Fingerprints	Executive	No	Bart Freundlich
	Arresting Gena	Executive	No	Hannah Weyer
	Wonderland	Executive	No	John O'Hagan	Documentary
	Office Killer	Executive	No	Cindy Sherman
	The Ice Storm	Yes	Yes	Ang Lee
1998	Happiness	Executive	No	Todd Solondz
1999	Lola and Billy the Kid	Executive	No	Kutluğ Ataman
	The Lifestyle	Executive	No	David Schisgall	Documentary
	Ride with the Devil	Yes	Yes	Ang Lee
2000	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	Executive	Yes		Also songwriter
2001	Buffalo Soldiers	Executive	No	Gregor Jordan
2002	Auto Focus	Executive	No	Paul Schrader
2003	Hulk	Yes	Yes	Ang Lee
2005	Brokeback Mountain	Yes	No
2007	Lust, Caution	Yes	Yes		Also songwriter
2009	Taking Woodstock	Yes	Yes
2014	That Film About Money[18]	Yes	Yes	Himself	Short film
2015	Alone in Berlin	Yes	No	Vincent Perez
	Suffragette	Executive	No	Sarah Gavron
	Junction 48	Executive	No	Udi Aloni
2016	Indignation	Yes	Yes	Himself	Directorial debut
2017	Casting JonBenet[19]	Yes	No	Kitty Green	Documentary
	Dayveon[20]	Executive	No	Amman Abasi
	A Prayer Before Dawn[21]	Executive	No	Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire
2018	Benji	Executive	No	Brandon Camp
	Furlough	Executive	No	Laurie Collyer
2019	Adam	Yes	No	Rhys Ernst
	The Tomorrow Man	Yes	No	Noble Jones
	Driveways	Yes	No	Andrew Ahn
	The Assistant	Yes	No	Kitty Green
	Frames[22]	Yes	Yes	Himself	Short film
2022	The King's Daughter	No	Yes	Sean McNamara
2024	We Grown Now	Executive	No	Minhal Baig
	McVeigh	Executive	No	Mike Ott
2025	The Wedding Banquet	Yes	Yes	Andrew Ahn

Awards and nominations

Year	Title	Awards/Nominations
1997	The Ice Storm	Prix du Scénario (Best Screenplay Award)[23] Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated – WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
2000	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	Nominated – Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated – Academy Award for Best Original Song Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated – WGA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Nominated – Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television, or Other Visual Media
2005	Brokeback Mountain	BAFTA Award for Best Film Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama[24] Independent Spirit Award for Best Film[25] Nominated – Academy Award for Best Picture
2007	Lust, Caution	Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film
2016	Indignation	Nominated – Berlin International Film Festival Best First Feature Award

Career recognition and honors

• Galway Film Festival Award for Outstanding Achievement, June 2019^[26]
• AACTA Award, Best Feature Length Documentary, "Casting JonBenet," December 201719th Annual GLAAD (Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination) Media Awards, Golden Gate Award, May 2008
• Golden Horse Award, Best Film, Best Screenplay Adaptation (James Schamus and Wang Hui-ling), "Lust, Caution," 2007
• Producers Guild of America, Darryl Zanuck Award for Producer of the Year, 2005
• Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Best Picture of the Year, "Brokeback Mountain," 2005
• New York Film Critics Circle, Best Picture, "Brokeback Mountain," 2005
• Out Magazine, Out 100 Award, 2005
• Grammy Award Nomination, Best Song Written For A Motion Picture, Television, Or Other Media, "A Love Before Time" from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2002
• Hugo Award, Best Dramatic Presentation for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2001^[27]
• The Philip and Ruth Hettleman Award, Columbia University School of General Studies, 1996^[28]
• Independent Spirit Brian Greenbaum Memorial Award for Producing, 1994

Writing

Books

• Taking Woodstock. New York: Newmarket Press, 2009. Screenplay and Introduction.
• Carl Theodor Dryer's Gertrud: The Moving Word. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008.
• Lust, Caution. New York: Pantheon, 2007. Screenplay (with Wang Hui-Ling) and Introduction.
• The Hulk. New York: Newmarket Press, 2003. Screenplay and Introduction.
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Portrait of the Ang Lee Film. New York: Newmarket Press, 2000. Screenplay (with Wang Hui-Ling) and Notes.
• Ride With the Devil. London: Faber & Faber, 1999. Screenplay, Introduction, and Notes.
• The Ice Storm. New York: Newmarket Press, 1997. Screenplay, Introduction, and Notes.
• Two Films By Ang Lee: "Eat Drink Man Woman" and "The Wedding Banquet". New York: The Overlook Press, 1994. Introduction and Screenplays (with Ang Lee, Neal Peng, and Wang Hui-Ling).

Essays and articles

• "The 'Blurred Lines' of Columbia University's Task Force on Antisemitism", Mondoweiss, May 28, 2024.
• “Hollywood thinks it can divide and conquer the writers’ strike: It won’t work", The Guardian, May 5, 2023.
• “Rewriting Trauma: The Business of Storytelling in the Age of the Algorithm”, Literary Hub, December 12, 2018.
• “42 Directors Pick Their Favorite Movies of 2017", IndieWire, December 29, 2017.
• “Rise of the Machines: Cathy O’Neil and James Schamus on How Algorithms are Changing Society — and Filmmaking”, Filmmaker (magazine), September 14, 2017.
• "23 Fragments on the Future of Cinema", Filmmaker (magazine) , Winter 2015.
• "Hollywood is Not American", The Hollywood Reporter, October 17, 2014.
• "James Schamus Reveals Secrets of the Oscar Voting System", Variety (magazine), January 8, 2014.
• "Raul Ruiz Remembered by James Schamus", Filmmaker (magazine), August 19, 2011.
• "The Apartment", The New York Times, November 4, 2007.
• "'Brokeback Mountain': An Exchange", The New York Review of Books, April 6, 2006.
• "Oy", Filmmaker, March 24, 2006.
• "Aesthetic Identities: A Response to Kenneth Chan and Christina Klein", Cinema Journal, Summer 2004, Volume 43, Number 4.
• "Sing to Us, Muse, of the Rage of the Hulk", The New York Times, May 11, 2003.
• "Talking Pictures", Filmmaker, Winter, 2001.
• "HOLIDAY FILMS; The Polyglot Task of Writing the Global Film", The New York Times, November 5, 2000.
• "IFP Rant", Filmmaker, Spring, 2000.
• "The Pursuit of Happiness: Making an Art of Marketing an Explosive Film", The Nation, April 5–12, 1999.
• "Long Live Indie Film", Filmmaker, Fall, 1995.

Profiles and interviews

• “This is Who We Are: James Schamus” Columbia University School of the Arts, December 1, 2023.
• “Hollywood On Strike!” Film Quarterly Webinar, 4 August 2023.
• “Writers Strikes Throughout History” Let’s Talk Film podcast, Woodstock Film Festival, July 13, 2023.
• “In the Footsteps of Giants: James Schamus - A Banquet of Inclusion,” Produced By: The Official Magazine of the Producers Guild of America, June/July 2023, p. 62.
• “The Ice Storm: Interview with James Schamus and Ted Hope,” Hollywood Gold Podcast, March 1, 2023.
• “Entertainment Educators of the Year: Entertainment Educators Discuss Teaching Cinema’s Next Gen and the Importance of Diverse and Impactful Storytellers” Variety, April 28, 2022.
• "The Aesthetics of Cinema: Interview with James Schamus" Gadfly Magazine, March 1, 2021.
• "James Schamus: financial models of SVoD giants cannot be sustained" Screen Daily, October 12, 2020.
• "James Schamus' New Short Film Explains the 124-Year-Old History of Cinema in 3 Minutes" Indiewire, November 27, 2019.
• “Filmmaker James Schamus Slams ‘Predator’ Harvey Weinstein and His ‘Factory of Abuse" The Hollywood Reporter, October 11, 2017
• “Berlin: Kitty Green and James Schamus on doc Casting JonBenet” Screen Daily, February 14, 2017.
• “James Schamus Interview: There are Two Kinds of Asshole Directors” Independent, November 15, 2016.
• “Ang Lee, James Schamus, and Sony Pictures Classics’ Michael Barker Reminisce About Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” The Playlist, October 20, 2016.
• “Interview: James Schamus (Indignation)” OnWriting, WGA East, September 13, 2016.
• "Indignation director James Schamus: Film is Dead, And That's Okay" Indiewire. August 1, 2016.
• "Indignation Interview" Indiewire. February, 2016.
• "James Schamus Directing Debut Indignation Wins Over Sundance Audience" The Wrap. January 24, 2016.
• "Indignation: Sundance Review" The Hollywood Reporter. January 25, 2016.
• "Accidental CEO The College. Summer 2014.
• "Case Study: James Schamus", Produced By. October 2014.
• "James Schamus: 'The job is an ego crushing ass-kick to the soul. I love it!'", The Guardian. January 28, 2014.
• "On James Schamus and Focus Features", Filmmaker. October 3, 2013.
• "The Professor of Micropopularity", The New York Times. November 26, 2010.
• "Ang Lee + James Schamus: A Pinewood Dialogue", Museum of the Moving Image. November 9, 2007.
• "The Professor in the Back Lot", The New York Times. September 17, 2006.
• "A Conversation with Tony Kushner," On Writing (Writers Guild of America, East): New York. Fall, 2005.