James Gray was born in New York City, in 1969. He grew up in Queens and during his teenage years aspired to be a painter. However, when introduced to the works of various filmmakers, such as Francis Ford Coppola, Gray´s interests expanded to the art of filmmaking.
He was a student at the School of Cinema-Television of the University of Southern California and made his debut film in 1994, when he was only 25 years old. Little Odessa (1994) was critically acclaimed and received the Silver Lion at the 51st Venice Film Festival.
After that James Gray has continued to direct films that are both critical and box office successes. Amongst his most famous films we can find We Own the Night (2007), The Immigrant (2013), The Lost City of Z (2016) or Ad Astra (2019). Gray has had many of his movies exhibited at the LEFFEST and was a guest of honor in the 2013 edition.