James Schamus

Guest Speaker

James Schamus is an award-winning screenwriter ( The Ice Storm) and producer ( Brokeback Mountain), and is CEO of Focus Features, the motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company whose films have included Moonrise Kingdom, Milk, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Pianist, Coraline, and The Place Beyond the Pines. He is alsoProfessor of Professional Practice in Columbia University’s School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory.  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 U.C. Berkeley.