Jim Jenkins

O Positive

A founding partner at O Positive Films, Jim has a well-earned reputation for being one of the industry’s premier comedy directors as well as one of its best visual storytellers. He has a particular knack for creating work that gets remembered. For example, when Jim shot Martin Scorsese for the second time (in a Cannes Gold Lion-winning commercial for AT&T), Scorsese told him that more people repeated lines to him from their first collaboration for American Express than they do from Scorsese’s own movies. Jim found this to be profoundly sad, believing that Goodfellas should have a bit more cultural impact than a 60-second commercial.

Jim has directed multiple well-received Super Bowl commercials, including Jeep’s Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray, which placed #1 on the USA Today Admeter and Hyundai’s Elevator featuring Jason Bateman. Other Super Bowl work includes a Bud Light Seltzer campaign starring Post Malone and four straight years for Snickers, starring such names as Joe Pesci, Steve Buscemi, and Willem Dafoe, as well as a first-ever live Super Bowl spot starring Adam Driver.

Over the years, Jim has directed for an impressive list of clients, including BMW, FedEx, Subaru, Coke, Volkswagen, Virgin Atlantic, Land Rover, NFL, American Airlines, Sony, YouTube, and dozens more. Jim has been a Director’s Guild (DGA) nominee for Outstanding Commercial Director, and his work has won multiple D&AD awards, CLIOS, One Show Pencils and Cannes Lions. Jim was the most awarded director at AICP in 2020, winning 11 awards that one year alone.

Recently, Jim wrote and directed his first short film, I Can Change, which was selected for inclusion in the Tribeca Film Festival, the Austin Film Festival, LA Shorts, the San Francisco International Film Festival, and many others. But Jim is less proud of any awards than he is of his family, including his two adopted children from Latvia.

Participating In

• Jun

  8

  Wednesday

  Curators in Conversation

  Learn More