Dr. Jackie Morie Receives Award for Pioneering Work in Virtual Reality
Building the Future Requires Art and Technology
The Beverly Hilton, Los Angeles, 2025
By Eve Weston
If you’re wondering just how cool the pioneering work of Dr. Jacqueline Ford Morie really is, the quote of a non-industry VES attendee sums it up quite nicely:
“My favorite parts were Jackie Morie and Keanu Reeves.”
And how big a deal are these VES awards? Well, an entire VFX team from Stockholm flew out just because they were nominated, not thinking there was any chance they’d win. (Spoiler: They won!) And the iconic “Ted,” didn’t need a space-age phone booth or his buddy Bill to travel through time. When Reeves stepped into the ballroom at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, he was face-to-face with the future and in the presence of an honoree who’s done significant work to shape it.
Dr. Morie received an introduction from Paul Debevec—Chief Research Officer at Eyeline Studios, Governor of Visual Effects at the Academy of Motion Pictures and an Adjunct Research Professor at USC—who shared that, “I had the privilege to work with Jackie for over a decade at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. We were two of the first leaders hired at the beginning of the institute back in the year 2000, and I was so lucky to have had a colleague who helped set the tone that this institute would not just be about developing technology, but exploring its creative possibilities. In fact, Jackie was part of the original workshop which proposed the idea to create the ICT. So without her, I might not even have had a job at all.”
Dr. Morie started out in computer graphics and animation. She went from doing artwork and computer graphics into a computer science degree. And then, since she knew the art and science, she started teaching computer animation and computer graphics to the next generation.
“So I’ve always been what I call kind of game adjacent, visual effects adjacent. You know, I’ve worked in many of the companies, mostly training people, but sometimes doing production, and then doing this other work that wasn’t going to really have any payoff for some time. You know, the first things I did were like 320 pixels across. I noticed they only showed one clip from one of those, and it’s like pixel city, because we did not have a way to do real time with more than a few polygons and a bunch of giant pixels on the screen. So you know the fact that what we can do now is just a dream to come true. Now we just need the great content.”
Back on the red carpet after receiving her beautiful award, Dr. Morie recounts what it was like when VES reached out to her, expressing their interest in honoring her with the Georges Méliès Award for her pioneering contributions.
“You know who I am?,” she marveled. And they said, “Oh yes, we know who you are. We followed your work.” And Dr. Morie thought, “That’s amazing. I thought I’d just been doing this all these years, just for me, you know, and to advance something that wouldn’t be around for another few decades.”
Regarding her award, Dr. Morie comments, “This is a validation that I wasn’t just playing around. I was really trying to do something that could advance not only the visual effects industry, but industries that are to come.”
When asked what else she’d like to take this moment to share, Dr. Morie says, “I would love to see more funding for wild and crazy ideas. I think we’re playing it safe right now with virtual reality. It’s what’s going to sell in the STEAM store, you know, whatever is going out there, and lots of the good work is being pulled so you can’t ever experience it again. And I think there’s less chances being taken. And I would like to see funding for something really different, something really meaningful and purposeful and and something that people go away saying that was reality, that was an experience that I’ll never forget.”
To learn more about Dr. Morie and her work, chck out her company All These Worlds LLC and the book she edited with Kate McCallum, Handbook of Research on the Global Impacts and Roles of Immersive Media.
