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 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.
Photos
Films (72)
Par alliance
2026 · Producer, Writer
Mariage entre amis
2025 · Screenplay, Producer, Original Film Writer
McVeigh
2024 · Executive Producer
We Grown Now
2024 · Executive Producer
Creation of the Gods I : Kingdom of Storms
2023 · Script Consultant
La Fille du Roi
2022 · Screenplay
L'attaque des clichés hollywoodiens!
2021 · Self - Screenwriter
Driveways
2020 · Producer
L'assistante
2020 · Producer
Frames
2019 · Narrator (voice), Director
30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing
2019 · Director
Adam
2019 · Producer
The Tomorrow Man
2019 · Producer
Furlough
2018 · Executive Producer
Stupid Things
2017 · Executive Producer
Casting JonBenet
2017 · Producer
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: A Retrospective
2016
Indignation
2016 · Screenplay, Director, Producer
Junction 48
2016 · Executive Producer
Alone in Berlin
2016 · Producer
Suffragette
2015 · Executive Producer
That Film About Money
2014 · Producer, Writer, Director
Misfire: The Rise and Fall of the Shooting Gallery
2013 · Self
Lost Forever: The Art of Film Preservation
2011 · Himself
These Amazing Shadows
2011 · Self
Taking Woodstock
2009 · Screenplay, Producer
A Sense of Character
2009 · Self
A Very Quiet Man
2009 · Self
Lust, Caution
2007 · Screenplay, Executive Producer
Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
2006 · Self
Brokeback Mountain
2005 · Producer
The Making of 'Hulk'
2003 · Self
Evolution of the Hulk
2003 · Self
The Incredible Ang Lee
2003 · Self
Hulk
2003 · Producer, Story, Screenplay
Buffalo Soldiers
2002 · Executive Producer
Auto Focus
2002 · Executive Producer
A Feast for the Eyes: Ang Lee in Taipei
2002 · Self
Sopa de tortilla
2001 · Original Film Writer
Tigre & Dragon
2000 · Screenplay, Executive Producer, Lyricist
Love God
1999 · Executive Producer
Ride with the Devil
1999 · Screenplay, Producer
Lola and Billy the Kid
1999 · Executive Producer
Happiness
1998 · Executive Producer
Office Killer
1997 · Executive Producer
Wonderland
1997 · Executive Producer
The Ice Storm
1997 · Producer, Screenplay
The Myth of Fingerprints
1997 · Executive Producer
Arresting Gena
1997 · Executive Producer
She's the One
1996 · Producer
Walking and Talking
1996 · Producer
Sense and Sensibility
1995 · Co-Producer
The Brothers McMullen
1995 · Executive Producer
Roy Cohn/Jack Smith
1995 · Producer
Safe
1995 · Executive Producer
What Happened Was...
1994 · Executive Producer
Eat Drink Man Woman
1994 · Screenplay, Associate Producer
A Psychic Mom
1993 · Coordinating Producer
The Wedding Banquet
1993 · Producer, Writer
MOTV (My Own TV)
1993 · Coordinating Producer
In the Soup
1992 · Associate Producer
Ambition
1992 · Producer
Thank You and Good Night
1992 · Producer
Surviving Desire
1992 · Associate Producer
Pushing Hands
1991 · Writer, Executive Producer
Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier
1991 · Executive Producer
I Was on Mars
1991 · Line Producer
Keep It for Yourself
1991
Poison
1991 · Executive Producer
Fatale
· Producer
The Spacesuit
· Producer
Chicken Delight
· Producer
