James Gray

Born in New York, James Gray grew up in Queens and stud­ied film at the Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia (USC). He made his direc­to­r­i­al debut in 1994 at the age of 25 with Lit­tle Odessa, wide­ly acclaimed by crit­ics and the pro­fes­sion. Nom­i­nat­ed among oth­ers at the Inde­pen­dent Spir­it Awards for Best First Fea­ture and Best First Screen­play, the film received the Inter­na­tion­al Crit­ics’ Prize at the Deauville Amer­i­can Film Fes­ti­val as well as the Sil­ver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. 

In 2000, James Gray wrote and direct­ed The Yards, his sec­ond fea­ture and his first with actor Joaquin Phoenix, who would become a fre­quent col­lab­o­ra­tor, going on to star in his next three films. Pre­sent­ed the same year in com­pe­ti­tion at the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, the fea­ture film also brought togeth­er Mark Wahlberg, Char­l­ize Theron, Faye Dun­away, Ellen Burstyn and James Caan. In his next New York crime dra­ma, We Own the Night, screened in com­pe­ti­tion at the 2007 Cannes Film Fes­ti­val and nom­i­nat­ed for a César in 2008 for Best For­eign Film, the direc­tor reunit­ed with Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix along­side Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall. In 2008, he direct­ed the roman­tic dra­ma Two Lovers, star­ring Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Pal­trow, Vines­sa Shaw and Isabel­la Rosselli­ni. The film also pre­miered in com­pe­ti­tion at the 2008 Cannes Film Fes­ti­val and received a nom­i­na­tion for the César for Best For­eign Film the year after.

In 2013, James Gray turned to a his­tor­i­cal sub­ject with The Immi­grant, which fol­lows the jour­ney of a Pol­ish immi­grant who arrives in the Unit­ed States and played by Mar­i­on Cotil­lard. Pre­miered in com­pe­ti­tion at the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, the fea­ture film received numer­ous awards includ­ing the New York Film Crit­ics Cir­cle Awards for Best Actress for its lead per­former and for Best Cin­e­matog­ra­phy. That same year, he cowrote the script of Blood Ties, a thriller lat­er shot in the USA by the French actor and director.