ABOUT TIM
About Tim
Tim Burton, director and artist, is widely regarded as one of cinema’s most imaginative and visual filmmakers.
Burton grew up in Burbank, California, where he drew extensively and began making short films while still in high school. From an early age, he drew inspiration from movies on television, newspaper comics, myths and fables, and the popular culture surrounding him – including the elaborate holiday decorations in his Burbank neighborhood. His early sketches reveal a distinctive visual sensibility and reflect the influence of cartoonists and illustrators such as Edward Gorey, Charles Addams, Don Martin, and Theodore Geisel. Japanese monster movies, Expressionist cinema, Universal Studios’ horror films, and suspense filmmakers William Castle and Vincent Price also shaped his artistic vision.
By 1977 Burton had enrolled as one of the earliest students in the now globally renowned animation program at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). During his studies, Burton continued to make short films, which attracted the attention of Walt Disney Productions and led to an apprenticeship at the studio.
In 1982, while there, he directed his first short, Vincent, a 6-minute black-and-white stop motion film based on a poem by Burton and narrated by his hero, Vincent Price. During his time with Disney, he also directed the 1983 kung fu–inspired short film adaptation of Hansel and Gretel, and the 1984 live-action short film Frankenweenie, which would later be remade as a feature-length stop motion film in 2012. In addition to his work at Disney, Burton honed his filmmaking skills producing and directing shorts of his own, something he has been doing since high school.
Over the years, Burton has achieved both critical and commercial success in the live-action and animation genres. 2007’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street won the Golden Globe for Best Film—Musical or Comedy and earned Burton a National Board of Review award for his directing work. Many of his films – such as Ed Wood (1994), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), and Alice in Wonderland (2010) – have garnered numerous Academy Awards, BAFTA, and Golden Globe nominations and wins, cementing his status as one of the greatest film makers of our time.
Courtesy of Netflix / MGM. Photo credit: Tomasz Lazar
He has a dedicated following, notably for classic features such as his 1985 directorial debut and unexpected comedic hit, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure; the wildly inventive Beetlejuice (1988); the action blockbuster Batman (1989); and its follow-up Batman Returns (1992). Perhaps his greatest industry achievement is helping to reinvigorate the stop-motion industry, starting with his 1993 creation and cult classic Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas; followed by 2005’s Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride and 2012’s Frankenweenie, the latter two both Academy Award and BAFTA–nominated films. One of his most recognized films is the 1990 romantic fantasy Edward Scissorhands—directed, co-written and produced by Burton. Most recently, he has received international acclaim for his work on the hit series Wednesday (2022)and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the highly anticipated sequel to the 1988 film.
Alongside his work as a director, Burton is also a prolific multidisciplinary artist, creating drawings, paintings, sculptures and photographs that explore the characters, worlds and ideas at the heart of his imagination. His art spans personal creations, unrealised projects and work connected to his films.
His extensive body of work has been documented in books including the beloved illustrated collection of poetry, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, and the 2009 publication The Art of Tim Burton, a 430-page volume spanning more than 40 years of his creative output. In 2015, The Napkin Art of Tim Burton was published as a mini companion to The Art of Tim Burton. The book brings together sketches Burton doodled on napkins and collected during his travels. Together, his publications offer an intimate insight into the working mind of a man who remains ever observant of the strange and unexpected world around him.
© 2026 Tim Burton
"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope."
Burton’s creative process has been explored on an international scale through a series of acclaimed exhibitions. His retrospective, Tim Burton, opened at The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2009, attracting more than 810,000 visitors and becoming one of the most attended exhibitions in the museum’s history. The exhibition subsequently toured to five international destinations. In 2014, the exhibition was transformed into The World of Tim Burton, which has since travelled internationally, offering audiences an intimate look into Burton’s creative world through his personal archive of artworks, drawings, photographs and film-related material. Together, the exhibitions have welcomed more than 4 million visitors worldwide between 2009 and 2025.
Courtesy of The Design Museum. Photo Credit: Matt Cressick
In 2022, Burton created an immersive exhibition that he dubbed his “fun house”. Tim Burton’s Labyrinth has since toured Madrid, Paris, Brussels, Barcelona, Milan and Mexico City, and continues to travel worldwide. The exhibition will open in Tokyo in November 2026, marking Burton’s first exhibition in Japan in 10 years. To date, it has welcomed more than 1.3 million visitors, demonstrating the enduring global appeal of Burton’s distinctive vision and artistic practice.
