James Schamus


James Allan Schamus 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.

Life and career

Schamus was born in Detroit, Michigan, to a Jewish family. He is the son of Clarita 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, 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 |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.
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 Center for the Humanities. In 2016, Outfest established the James Schamus Ally Award to honor individuals who give prominence to LGBTQ narratives, with winners including James Franco, Rita Moreno, Sandra Oh, Octavia Spencer, Andra Day, Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone, and Shirley MacLaine.
He is a signatory of the Film Workers for Palestine boycott pledge that was published in September 2025.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Career recognition and honors

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 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 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.

    Essays and articles

  • , Mondoweiss, May 28, 2024.
  • , The Guardian, May 5, 2023.
  • , Literary Hub, December 12, 2018.
  • , IndieWire, December 29, 2017.
  • , Filmmaker , September 14, 2017.
  • , Filmmaker , Winter 2015.
  • , The Hollywood Reporter, October 17, 2014.
  • , Variety , January 8, 2014.
  • , Filmmaker , August 19, 2011.
  • , The New York Times, November 4, 2007.
  • , The [New York Review of Books], April 6, 2006.
  • , Filmmaker, March 24, 2006.
  • , Cinema Journal, Summer 2004, Volume 43, Number 4.
  • , The New York Times, May 11, 2003.
  • , Filmmaker, Winter, 2001.
  • , The New York Times, November 5, 2000.
  • , Filmmaker, Spring, 2000.
  • , The Nation, April 5–12, 1999.
  • , Filmmaker, Fall, 1995.

    Profiles and interviews

  • Columbia University School of the Arts, December 1, 2023.
  • “Hollywood On Strike!” Film Quarterly Webinar, 4 August 2023.
  • 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.
  • Variety, April 28, 2022.
  • Gadfly Magazine, March 1, 2021.
  • Screen Daily, October 12, 2020.
  • Indiewire, November 27, 2019.
  • The Hollywood Reporter, October 11, 2017
  • Screen Daily, February 14, 2017.
  • Independent, November 15, 2016.
  • The Playlist, October 20, 2016.
  • OnWriting, WGA East, September 13, 2016.
  • Indiewire. August 1, 2016.
  • Indiewire. February, 2016.
  • The Wrap. January 24, 2016.
  • The Hollywood Reporter. January 25, 2016.
  • The College. Summer 2014.
  • , Produced By. October 2014.
  • , The Guardian. January 28, 2014.
  • , Filmmaker. October 3, 2013.
  • , The New York Times. November 26, 2010.
  • , Museum of the Moving Image. November 9, 2007.
  • , The New York Times. September 17, 2006.
  • "A Conversation with Tony Kushner," On Writing : New York. Fall, 2005.