James Schamus Biography

Life and career

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

• Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Nominated: Best Original Song, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Nominated: Best Picture, Brokeback Mountain (2005)

BAFTA Awards

• Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay, The Ice Storm (1997)
• Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Won: Best Film, Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Cannes Film Festival

• Won: Prix du Scnario (Best Screenplay Award), The Ice Storm (1997)

Independent Spirit Awards

• Won: Best Feature, Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Golden Globes

• Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film, Lust, Caution (2008)
• Won: Best Picture, Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Writers Guild of America Awards

• Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay, The Ice Storm (1998)
• Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Career Recognition and Honors

• ShowEast"?s Bingham Ray Spirit Award, October 2016
• 18th annual Outfest Achievement Award, June 2014
• President of the Jury, Berlin International Film Festival, February 2014
• Evelyn Burkey Award, Writers Guild of America, January 2014
• Hamptons Film Festival, Industry Toast, October 2012
• Point Foundation, Point Inspiration Award, April 2012
• Gotham Independent Film Project Awards, Career Tribute, November 2010
• San Francisco Film Festival Kanbar Lifetime Achievement Award for Screenwriting, April 2010
• Hollywood Reporter Independent Icon Award, Sundance, January 2010
• National Arts Club, Medal of Honor for Film, November 2009.
• 9th Annual Woodstock Film Festival, Trailblazer Award, October 2008
• 19th Annual GLAAD (Gay Lesbian Alliance Against Discrimination) Media Awards, Golden Gate Award, May 2008
• American Museum of the Moving Image Honoree, April 2008
• ShoWest/NATO (National Association of Theater Owners) Freedom of Expression Award, March 2008
• Golden Horse Award, Best Film, Best Screenplay Adaptation (James Schamus and Wang Hui-ling), "Lust, Caution," 2007
• Jacob Burns Film Center, Vision Award, September 2007
• British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Best Film, "Brokeback Mountain," 2005
• 21st Israel Film Festival, Visionary Award, November 2005
• Presidential Fellow in the Arts, University of Chicago, November 2005
• 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
• Distinguished Entertainment Industry Award, Anti-Defamation League, 2005
• Writer"?s Guild of America East, Richard B. Jablow Award for Devoted Service to the Guild, March 2002
• NBC Screenwriters Tribute, Nantucket Film Festival, 2002
• Grammy Award Nomination, Best Song Written For A Motion Picture, Television, Or Other Media, "A Love Before Time" from "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," 2002
• Excellence in Achievement Award, California Alumni Association, 2001
• Crystal Apple Award, New York City Mayor's Office, 2001
• Provincetown International Film Festival, Filmmaker on the Edge Award, 2001
• Yale Film Studies Award, Yale University, 2000
• Achievement Award, Jerusalem Cinematheque, 2000
• British Film Critics"? Circle Awards Nomination, Best Screenwriter, "The Ice Storm," 1999.
• Gladys Borchers Lecturer, University of Wisconsin, 1998.
• Nuveen Fellow, University of Chicago, 1997
• University Lecturer, Columbia University, 1997
• Cable Ace Award, Best Historical Documentary Special or Series, "Wonderland," (Executive Producer), 1997
• IFP Gotham Award, Producer of the Year, 1996
• Zanuck Award Nominee, Producers Guild of America, 1996
• Nova Award, Producers Guild of America, 1996
• The Philip and Ruth Hettleman Award, Columbia University School of General Studies, 1996
• 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

• "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.
• "Preface." "Musts, Maybes, and Nevers: A Book About The Movies". By David Picker. Charleston: CreateSpace, 2013.
• "See Here Now: Festival Red Carpets and the Cost of Film Culture," in Coming Soon to a Festival Near You: Programming Film Festivals, ed. Jeffrey Ruoff. Scotland, UK: St. Andrews Film Books, 2012.
• "Raul Ruiz Remembered by James Schamus", Filmmaker (magazine), August 19, 2011.
• "Afterword." A Killer Life. By Christine Vachon. New York: Limelight Editions, 2007.
• "The Apartment", The New York Times, November 4, 2007.
• "Next Year in Munich: Masculinity, Zionism and Diaspora in Spielberg"?s Epic," Representations, Fall 2007, no. 100.
• ""?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.
• "Dreyer's Textual Realism." Rites of Realism: Essays on Corporeal Cinema, Ivone Margulies, ed., Duke UP, 2003.
• "Sing to Us, Muse, of the Rage of the Hulk", The New York Times, May 11, 2003.
• "Whatever Happened to B Movies?", Filmmaker (magazine), Fall, 2002 (reprinted from The Off Hollywood Report, Fall 1990).
• "A Rant." The End of Cinema As We Know It: American Film in the Nineties, Jon Lewis, ed., NYU Press, 2002.
• "Fragments Towards an Introduction to Elia Sulieman's Chronicles." Filmmaker, Winter 2002.
• "16 Fragments on Auteur Theory, or Sarris's Revenge." Citizen Sarris: American Film Critic, Emanuel Levy, ed., Scarecrow Press, 2001.
• "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.
• "20 Fragments on the Art of Screenwriting." Scenario, Summer 1996.
• "Long Live Indie Film", Filmmaker, Fall, 1995.

Profiles and Interviews

• "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 Man Behind the Movies", California Magazine (Cal Alumni Association). Fall, 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.

Film credits

• The Golden Boat (1990), directed by Raoul Ruiz (producer)
• Poison (1991), directed by Todd Haynes (executive producer)
• Pushing Hands (1991), directed by Ang Lee (producer and writer, additional scenes)
• Swoon (1992), directed by Tom Kalin (executive producer)
• The Wedding Banquet (1993), directed by Ang Lee (producer and co-writer)
• Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), directed by Ang Lee (associate producer and co-writer)
• Safe (1995), directed by Todd Haynes (executive producer)
• Sense and Sensibility (1995), directed by Ang Lee (co-producer)
• She's The One (1996), directed by Edward Burns (producer)
• Walking and Talking (1996), directed by Nicole Holofcener (producer)
• The Ice Storm (1997), directed by Ang Lee (producer and writer)
• Happiness (1998), directed by Todd Solondz (executive producer)
• Ride with the Devil (1999), directed by Ang Lee (producer and writer)
• Lola and Billy the Kid (1999), directed by Kutlu? Ataman (executive producer)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), directed by Ang Lee (executive producer and writer)
• Buffalo Soldiers (2001), directed by Gregor Jordan (executive producer)
• Auto Focus (2002), directed by Paul Schrader (executive producer)
• Hulk (2003), directed by Ang Lee (producer and writer)
• Brokeback Mountain (2004), directed by Ang Lee (producer)
• Lust, Caution (2007), directed by Ang Lee (producer and writer)
• Taking Woodstock (2009), directed by Ang Lee (producer and writer)
• That Film about Money (2014) (short film) (director, producer and writer)
• Suffragette (2015), directed by Sarah Gavron (executive producer)
• The Last Verse (2015), directed by Udi Aloni (executive producer)
• Alone in Berlin (2015), directed by Vincent Perez (producer)
• Indignation (2016) (director, producer and writer)
• The King's Daughter (2016), directed by Sean McNamara (writer)