James Ponsoldt

Ponsoldt's fifth feature film is an adaption of Dave Eggers' novel The Circle, about an omnipotent high-tech company known as "The Circle". Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, Karen Gillan, and John Boyega star in the film, which was released on April 28, 2017. Ponsoldt co-produced the film.

Ponsoldt's fourth feature as director is The End of the Tour (2015), with a screenplay by Donald Margulies, based on the book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself (2010) by David Lipsky. It follows Rolling Stone writer David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) as he interviews author David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) during the final week of the promotional book tour for Infinite Jest. The film also stars Anna Chlumsky and Ron Livingston. It premiered at The Sundance Film Festival in January 2015 and was released theatrically in July 2015.

It was announced in May 2015 that Ponsoldt was in negotiations to write and direct an adaptation of the Stewart O'Nan novel, West of Sunset, which follows writer F. Scott Fitzgerald as he comes to Hollywood to try his hand at screenwriting in 1937, when his health was poor, his finances were dismal, and his wife was in an insane asylum.

The Spectacular Now (2013), the third feature film Ponsoldt directed, was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, based on the novel by Tim Tharp. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival in January, 2013, where it was warmly received and was given the Special Jury Award for Acting for the performances from its two lead stars, Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley. New York-based distribution company A24 inked a deal for The Spectacular Now, which Ponsoldt shot in Athens, Georgia, in the summer of 2012. The film was released on August 2, 2013.

Ponsoldt has also directed an episode of Parenthood entitled "The M Word" (2013), an episode of Shameless entitled "Iron City" (2014), and two episodes of the Aziz Ansari series Master of None. He also directed four episodes of the first season of the Facebook Watch original Sorry for Your Loss, including the pilot and the season finale.

Ponsoldt's second feature film that he also both wrote and directed was Smashed (2012), which starred Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul. Smashed premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2012, and won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Excellence in Independent Film Producing. The film also received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Winstead's performance.

Ponsoldt's first feature film that he both wrote and directed, Off the Black (2006), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. The film stars Nick Nolte and Trevor Morgan.

Ponsoldt has written and directed three short films: Coming Down the Mountain (2003), Rush Tickets (2003), and Junebug and Hurricane (2004). He also co-directed (and served as a co-directory of photography and an editor on) a documentary short called We Saw Such Things (2008), about the mermaids of Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida.

In addition to producing or serving as an executive producer on films that he both wrote and directed, Ponsoldt was an associate producer on the TV movie Porn 'n Chicken (2002), served as an executive producer on the feature film Amira & Sam (2014), directed and written by Sean Mullin, and also served as an executive producer on the short film Mountain Low (2014), written and directed by Andy Bruntel.

James Adam Ponsoldt (born 1978) is an American film director, actor and screenwriter, now based in Los Angeles. He directed the drama films Off the Black (2006) and Smashed (2012), the romantic comedy-drama The Spectacular Now (2013), and the dramas The End of the Tour (2015) and The Circle (2017).