About Ang Lee and James Schamus
Ang Lee
Born and raised in Taiwan, Ang Lee moved to the United States in 1978. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in theater from the University of Illinois, he went on to New York University to complete a Master of Fine Arts Degree in film production.
Mr. Lee's first feature film, Pushing Hands, was viewed internationally and nominated for nine Golden Horse Awards, the Taiwanese equivalent to the Oscar. His next films were the critically acclaimed The Wedding Banquet (1993) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994). Both films received multiple nominations and awards including Best Foreign Language Film nomination from the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.
Mr. Lee's other films included Sense and Sensibility (1995), which garnered many awards including Best Screenplay Adaptation from the Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, while Ice Storm (1997) went on to become one of the year's best reviewed films.
In 2001, Mr. Lee directed the highly acclaimed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. He received a Golden Globe Award and a Directors Guild Award for Best Director. The film won four Academy Awards including Best Foreign Language Film.
Recently, Mr. Lee directed Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Lust, Caution (2007). The former received eight nominations at the 78th Academy Awards, more than any other film of that year, where it won Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original Score. Lust, Caution won Best Picture at the 2007 Venice Film Festival and swept the 2007 Golden Horse Awards by winning seven awards, including Best Feature Film and Best Director.
Mr. Lee is currently working on Taking Woodstock, a film based on Elliot Tiber's autobiography of the same name. The film is scheduled for release in 2009.
James Schamus
James Schamus is chief executive officer (CEO) of Focus Features and Professor in Columbia University's School of the Arts, where he teaches film history and theory. An integral contributor to the American independent film business for over two decades, Schamus has the unique distinction of being an award-winning screenwriter and producer who is also a film executive. He is a Golden Globe Award winner and multiple Academy Award nominee for his screenwriting and songwriting (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and producing (Brokeback Mountain); among his other honors, he was awarded the prize for Best Screenplay at the 1997 Cannes International Film Festival for The Ice Storm. He has had a long collaboration as writer and producer with Ang Lee on eleven feature films, including the upcoming Taking Woodstock.
Focus, formed in May 2002, is a motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company committed to bringing moviegoers the most original stories from the world's most innovative filmmakers. The company's Oscar-winning films have included Brokeback Mountain, The Pianist, Lost in Translation, The Motorcycle Diaries, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Constant Gardener, and Atonement. The company, operating as Focus Features domestically and Focus Features International (FFI) overseas, provides one-stop shopping for filmmakers interested in financing, producing, selling, or distributing films whether geared to local markets or seeking commercial exposure worldwide.
Prior to the formation of Focus, Schamus was co-president of the independent film production company Good Machine, which he co-founded in 1991. Mr. Schamus and his partners at the company produced over 40 films during an 11-year period, in partnership with filmmakers such as Ang Lee, Todd Solondz, and Nicole Holofcener. Good Machine was honored with a 10-year retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Schamus' other honors include being named the 2006 Presidential Fellow in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, and receiving the Writers Guild of America, East's 2003 Richard B. Jablow Award for devoted service to the Guild.
