James Schamus
Producer, Writer, Director
7 September 1959 (66 years)
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 and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989.
Schamus was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a Jewish family.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 the University of California, Berkeley.
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. The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released by Roadside Attractions on July 29, 2016.
He was president of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. He has also been on the jury of the New York International Children's Film Festival 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 Centre for the Humanities.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Stephen Rosenbaum, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Schamus was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a Jewish family.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 the University of California, Berkeley.
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. The film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released by Roadside Attractions on July 29, 2016.
He was president of the jury for the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. He has also been on the jury of the New York International Children's Film Festival 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 Centre for the Humanities.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Stephen Rosenbaum, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Filmography
| 2026 | The Boroughs · as Consulting Producer |
| 2025 | |
| 2024 | McVeigh · as Executive Producer |
| 2023 | We Grown Now · as Executive Producer |
| 2021 | Somos. · as Executive Producer |
| 2019 | The AssistantOn Plex |
| 2019 | |
| 2019 | The Tomorrow ManOn Plex |
| 2019 | |
| 2018 | Benji · as Executive Producer |
| 2018 | Furlough · as Executive Producer |
| 2017 | A Prayer Before Dawn · as Executive Producer |
| 2017 | Dayveon · as Executive Producer |
| 2017 | |
| 2016 | |
| 2016 | |
| 2016 | Junction 48 · as Executive Producer |
| 2015 | Suffragette · as Executive Producer |
| 2014 | |
| 2009 | |
| 2007 | Lust, Caution · as Executive Producer |
| 2005 | |
| 2003 | |
| 2002 | Auto Focus · as Executive Producer |
| 2001 | Buffalo Soldiers · as Executive Producer |
| 2000 | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · as Executive Producer |
| 1999 | |
| 1999 | The Lifestyle · as Executive Producer |
| 1999 | Lola and Billy the Kid · as Executive Producer |
| 1998 | Happiness · as Executive Producer |
| 1997 | Office Killer · as Executive Producer |
| 1997 | Wonderland · as Executive Producer |
| 1997 | |
| 1997 | The Myth of Fingerprints · as Executive Producer |
| 1997 | Love God · as Executive Producer |
| 1997 | The Sticky Fingers of Time · as Executive Producer |
| 1997 | Arresting Gena · as Executive Producer |
| 1996 | |
| 1996 | |
| 1995 | Greetings from Africa · as Executive Producer |
| 1995 | Sense and Sensibility · as Co-Producer |
| 1995 | The Brothers McMullen · as Executive Producer |
| 1995 | Safe · as Executive Producer |
| 1994 | What Happened Was... · as Executive ProducerOn Plex |
| 1994 | Eat Drink Man Woman · as Associate Producer |
| 1994 | |
| 1993 | Terminal USA · as Executive Producer |
| 1993 | The Wedding BanquetOn Plex |
| 1992 | Swoon · as Executive Producer |
| 1992 | In the Soup · as Associate Producer |
| 1992 | |
| 1992 | Surviving Desire · as Associate Producer |
| 1991 | |
| 1991 | Pushing Hands · as Executive ProducerOn Plex |
| 1991 | Poison · as Executive Producer |
| 1990 |
| 2026 | |
| 2025 | The Wedding Banquet · as Screenplay |
| 2022 | The King's Daughter · as Screenplay |
| 2021 | |
| 2016 | Indignation · as Screenplay |
| 2009 | Taking Woodstock · as Screenplay |
| 2007 | Lust, Caution · as Screenplay |
| 2001 | Tortilla Soup · as Original Film Writer |
| 2000 | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · as Screenplay |
| 1999 | Ride with the Devil · as Screenplay |
| 1997 | The Ice Storm · as Screenplay |
| 1994 | Eat Drink Man Woman · as Screenplay |
| 1993 | The Wedding BanquetOn Plex |
| 1991 | Pushing HandsOn Plex |
| 2021 | Attack of the Hollywood Cliches! · as Self - Screenwriter |
| 2019 | The Movies · as Self - Screenwriter |
| 2011 | These Amazing Shadows · as Self |
| 2006 | 2006 Independent Spirit Awards · as Self - Winner |
| 2006 | Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema · as Self |
| 2006 | The 63rd Annual Golden Globe Awards 2006 · as Self - Accepting Award |
| 2005 | Logo Movie Special: 'Brokeback Mountain' · as Self |
| 1991 | Charlie Rose · as Self - Guest |
| 1971 | Film · as Self - Interviewee |
| 2025 | Creation of the Gods II: Demon Force · as Screenplay Consultant |
| 2023 | Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms · as Script ConsultantOn Plex |
| 2003 | Hulk · as Story |
| 1993 | Dottie Gets Spanked · as Coordinating Producer |
| 1993 | MOTV (My Own TV) · as Coordinating Producer |
| 1991 | I Was on Mars · as Line Producer |