James Gray

Graduated from USC School of Cinema-Television

Grandparents were Russian immigrants.

Father was once an electronics contractor.

Grew up in Queens, New York.

One of 105 people invited to join AMPAS in 2008.

Four of his five films were nominated for Cannes Film Festivals Palme dOr, he was nominated for the first time with his second film, The Yards . His following films, We Own the Night , Two Lovers and The Immigrant were all nominated for the Palme dOr.

Considers The Immigrant as the best film of his career and Marion Cotillard as the best actor he ever worked with.

Hes a great fan of Claude Chabrol , intending his noir The Yards as a homage to those of the great French director. The film opened at the Cannes film festival to the audiences whistles, something that greatly angered Chabrol.

Used to be friends with Isabelle Huppert , who introduced him to his idol, Claude Chabrol. Their relationship changed by the time Gray found himself at odds with Huppert while serving as a member of the 2009 Cannes film festival jury, which she presided. After this experience, he described the actress as a fascist bitch.

He directed 4 movies that were screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival: The Yards , We Own the Night , Two Lovers and The Immigrant . None of these movies received a single award from the jury.

Some of his favorite movies are Rocco e i suoi fratelli , Les quatre cents coups , Singin in the Rain (1952) , Tky monogatari , The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II .

Attended the Maile School in Winter Park, Florida, Mandy Moore and Arielle Kebbel were fellow students.

Attended Dr. Phillips High School.

[on getting inspiration from the brawl scene in,Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960) for The Yards (2000) ] I,ripped off [Alain] Delon. I wanted to recreate that scene even better.

There are very few movies in English about romantic obsession told with a seriousness of purpose.