James Schamus jury president at 64th Berlin International Film Festival

The Oscar-nominated screenwriter and former Focus Features head will oversee Berlin's international jury, which votes on the winners of the festival's coveted Gold and Silver Bear honors, hollywoodreporter.com reports, citing the organizers.

He will be joined on the Berlin jury by two-time Oscar inner Christoph Waltz,Skyfall producer Barbara Broccoli, French director Michel Gondry and Danish actress Trine Dyrholm (In a Better World). Francis Ha star GretaGerwig, Iranian filmmaker and painterMitra Farahani and Hong Kong action star Tony Leungcomplete this year's Berlin jury.

As a screenwriter, Schamus is most closely associated with Ang Lee, having penned the script to Lee's 1993 Golden Bear winner The Wedding Banquet, as well as delivering Oscar-nominated screenplays for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). As CEO of Focus Features for more than a decade, Schamus left an indelible mark on the independent film industry worldwide. He left Focus last year after a shake-up at the group prompted by Focus' quasi-merger with FilmDistrict.

Berlin took its time appointing a jury president this year. The announcement comes well after Cannes named New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion to be jury president for this year's edition in May.

Last year's Berlin jury president was Chinese director Wong Kar Wai, whose jury awarded the 2013 Golden Bear to Romanian tragicomedy Child's Pose.

Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, which opens this year's Berlin Film Festival, is one of the hot competition titles. Other contenders include Aloft, the English-language debut from Claudia Llosa, who won the Berlin Golden Bear in 2009 with The Milk of Sorrow; Alain Resnais' Life of Riley; '71, from British director Yann Demange; the Greek drama Stratos, from director Yannis Economides; and The Beloved Sisters, from veteran German filmmaker Dominik Graf.

George Clooney's historical drama The Monuments Men will have its world premiere out of competition in Berlin.