Jim Morris has worked in in the entertainment industry as a producer, director, writer and executive. He began his career as a still photographer and continues to do fine art photography, focusing on contemporary urban landscapes.
Morris is currently the President of Pixar Animation Studios, where he runs all of the company’s creative development, production and operations. Morris has overseen all feature film and short form production at the studio for the last 12 years, including the Academy Award®-winning films Inside Out, Brave, Up, Toy Story 3 and Ratatouille. He has also produced Pixar’s Academy Award®-winning feature, WALL•E, for which he was awarded Producer of the Year in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures from the Producer’s Guild of America. Morris received a British Academy Award, an American Film Institute Award, a Golden Globe and a Visual Effects Society Award for this film as well. Prior to joining Pixar, Morris held a range of key positions for 17 years in various divisions of Lucasfilm Ltd. He served as President of Lucas Digital Ltd., and managed its three divisions, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Skywalker Sound and Lucasfilm Animation. As ILM’s General Manager for more than 13 years, he supervised a staff of over 1400 artists and technicians, and guided the largest visual effects facility in the entertainment industry.
With Morris’ oversight, ILM created the groundbreaking, Academy Award®-winning visual effects in Jurassic Park, Death Becomes Her, Terminator 2 and Forrest Gump. Other notable projects completed under his management include Mission: Impossible, Twister, Saving Private Ryan, Death Becomes Her, Star Wars: Episodes I and II, The Perfect Storm, Pearl Harbor, Minority Report, Pirates of the Caribbean, Master and Commander, and three Harry Potter films.
Morris joined ILM in 1987 as a producer of visual effects for films and commercials. He was subsequently promoted to ILM’s executive in charge of production, where he supervised all of the company’s production. The Abyss, which earned an Oscar® for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, and Steven Spielberg’s Always, are among Morris’s producing credits.
Before joining ILM, Morris was executive producer at Arnold & Associates, where he oversaw the company’s three offices and produced national commercials for clients such as Levi’s and Mattel. Prior to that, Morris was executive producer at One Pass, where he headed the commercial production department. He also served in the production departments at J. Walter Thompson, and Foote, Cone & Belding in San Francisco. Morris worked as a producer and director for PBS affiliate WCNY-TV, and as a cameraman and editor at NBC affiliate WSYR-TV. He began his career as an architectural and wedding photographer.
Morris is the recipient of the Producers Guild of America Digital 50 Award, the Visual Effects Society Board of Directors Award, the Visual Effects Society Founders Award and is a Visual
Effects Society Fellow. He served for many years as president of the San Francisco Film Commission. He is a member of the Motion Picture Academy, the British Film Academy and the Producers Guild. Morris earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Film and a Master of Science degree in Television/Radio from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.
Closed on Sunday (March 1-31, 2018)
Artist’s statement
I have long been profoundly struck by the moments of calm and beauty I encounter in the urban landscapes I pass through. And I am intrigued that glimpses of a place I have never seen before can trigger some deep sense of memory and emotion — sometimes wistful, sometimes playful, sometimes haunting. I consider myself lucky when I find those places, and can capture a sense of those feelings and emotions in my compositions.