---
name: "Errol Morris"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/errol-morris"
fi1m_id: "errol-morris"
imdb_id: "nm0001554"
tmdb_id: 18533
wikidata_id: "Q977546"
roles: ["Director","Producer"]
born: "5 February 1948"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 5
average_fi1m_score: 85
average_as: "director"
average_over: 3
updated: "2026-09-24T01:00:53.855285+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Errol Morris

## Identity

Errol Morris

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/errol-morris
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** errol-morris
- **IMDb ID:** nm0001554
- **TMDB ID:** 18533
- **Wikidata ID:** Q977546
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Morris, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q977546, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001554/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/18533

Director and producer. Born 5 February 1948 in Hewlett, Long Island, New York, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer
- **Born:** 5 February 1948, Hewlett, Long Island, New York, USA
- **Active:** 1988–2014
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 5: 3 directing, 2 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [Mark Lipson](https://film.one/person/mark-lipson.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 85, as director, over 3 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1980s 90 (1), 1990s 82 (1), 2000s 84 (1), 2010s 88 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 85 to 82 across 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 1 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Documentary 3, Crime 1
- **Screen time:** 5 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $2m across 2 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Errol_Morris, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q977546, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001554/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/18533

## Streaming the US now

- **AMC+:** [*The Thin Blue Line*](https://film.one/film/the-thin-blue-line.md) (90)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Fog of War*](https://film.one/film/the-fog-of-war.md) (84)
- **The Roku Channel:** [*Fast, Cheap & Out of Control*](https://film.one/film/fast-cheap-and-out-of-control.md) (82)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Errol Morris

> Errol Morris gives people time to explain themselves, and makes that listening gripping. We value his patience, while remaining wary of how readily an articulate subject can make an incomplete answer sound sufficient.

In *The Fog of War* (2003), Robert McNamara is allowed to think aloud at length. Morris keeps listening, and the longer the explanation runs, the more opportunity we have to hear where reasoning becomes evasion. We found ourselves respecting McNamara’s intelligence, then felt uneasy about how much that respect softened our response to his account. That is a good reason to watch Morris: he makes us notice our own willingness to be persuaded. The film sometimes needs to interrupt with a harder question.

His first feature, *Gates of Heaven* (1978), explored two pet cemeteries, establishing an interest in people whose concerns might otherwise be dismissed as eccentric. With *The Thin Blue Line* (1988), interviews and re-enactments became tools for examining a wrongful conviction. By *Fast, Cheap & Out of Control* (1997), he was cutting between four men’s lives, finding connections rather than treating each as a separate profile. The editing in the latter makes those connections, leaving the viewer to follow them.

His collaborators include composer Philip Glass, and he uses sound as well as constructed images to organise his documentaries. The Interrotron he invented is a teleprompter-based system that lets subjects look straight into the camera while speaking to him. That direct address makes the invitation to listen feel personal. His interviews are extended and deliberately non-adversarial, which can let a subject reveal more than an argument across a desk might.

*The Fog of War* remains our starting point, because it puts the value and the risk of that method in the same interview. Morris organises McNamara’s reflections into eleven lessons, a clear structure that sometimes makes enormous mistakes seem too neatly teachable. He does not always push hard enough when explanation threatens to stand in for responsibility, although allowing the answers to run gives us material to question them. His patience is largely justified here, and the film leaves us equipped to challenge the account we have heard. Watch it with someone prepared to disagree about when Morris should have asked the next question.

## Biography

Errol Morris is an American film director. He was born on 5 February 1948 in Hewlett, New York. He graduated with a BA in history from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1969 and briefly attended graduate programmes at Princeton University and the University of California, Berkeley.

Morris began directing documentaries in the late 1970s. His films include *Gates of Heaven* (1978), *The Thin Blue Line* (1988), *A Brief History of Time* (1991) and *The Fog of War* (2003), which he also produced. *The Fog of War* won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, britannica.com, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (5)

### Directed (3) — the average rests on these

- *The Fog of War* (2003), Fi1m 84, as Self (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/the-fog-of-war.md)
- *Fast, Cheap & Out of Control* (1997), Fi1m 82, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/fast-cheap-and-out-of-control.md)
- *The Thin Blue Line* (1988), Fi1m 90, as Self - Interviewer (voice) (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-blue-line.md)

### Produced (2)

- *The Look of Silence* (2014), Fi1m 87, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-look-of-silence.md)
- *The Act of Killing* (2012), Fi1m 88, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/the-act-of-killing.md)

## Complete filmography (56)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *67 Bombs to Enid* (2025), Executive Producer
- *Chaos: The Manson Murders* (2025), Director, Producer
- *Separated* (2024), Director, Producer
- *The Only Girl in the Orchestra* (2023), Executive Producer
- *Tune Out the Noise* (2023), Director, Writer
- *The Pigeon Tunnel* (2023), Director, Writer, Producer
- *Nina & Irena* (2023), Executive Producer
- *Enemies of the State* (2021), Executive Producer
- *My Psychedelic Love Story* (2020), Director, Executive Producer
- *A Wilderness of Error* (2020), series, Book
- *American Dharma* (2019), Director, Producer
- *Wormwood* (2017), series, Director, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Wormwood* (2017), Director
- *The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography* (2017), Director
- *The Lure* (2016), Executive Producer
- *National Bird* (2016), Executive Producer
- *Demon in the Freezer* (2016), Director
- *Most Valuable Whatever* (2015), Director
- *Chrome* (2015), Director
- *Being Mr. Met* (2015), Director
- *The Streaker* (2015), Director
- *The Heist* (2015), Director
- *The Subterranean Stadium* (2015), Director
- *It's Not Crazy, It's Sports* (2015), Director
- *Leymah Gbowee: The Dream* (2014), Director
- *Lech Walesa: The Shipyard* (2014), Director
- *Bob Geldof: The Moment* (2014), Director
- *The Look of Silence* (2014), Executive Producer — Fi1m 87, [page](https://film.one/film/the-look-of-silence.md)
- *November 22, 1963* (2013), Director
- *Benoît Mandelbrot, The Father of Fractals* (2013), Director
- *The Unknown Known* (2013), Director, Writer
- *The Act of Killing* (2012), Executive Producer — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/the-act-of-killing.md)
- *11 Excellent Reasons Not to Vote?* (2012), Director
- *Team Spirit* (2012), Director
- *El Wingador* (2012), Director
- *The Umbrella Man* (2011), Director
- *Tabloid* (2011), Director
- *They Were There* (2011), Director
- *Dennis Jakob Unplugged* (2010), Director
- *Survivors* (2008), Director
- *Standard Operating Procedure* (2008), Director, Producer
- *The Fog of War* (2003), Director, Producer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/the-fog-of-war.md)
- *The Movie Movie (An Excerpt)* (2002), Director
- *Gretchen Worden: The Mutter Museum* (2001), Director
- *Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.* (1999), Director, Producer
- *Fast, Cheap & Out of Control* (1997), Director, Producer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/fast-cheap-and-out-of-control.md)
- *The Dark Wind* (1992), Director
- *A Brief History of Time* (1991), Director
- *Bride of the Orient* (1989), Actor
- *The Thin Blue Line* (1988), Director, Writer — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-blue-line.md)
- *Point of View* (1988), series, Director
- *Hotel New York* (1984), Actor
- *American Playhouse* (1982), series, Director, Writer
- *Vernon, Florida* (1981), Director, Producer
- *Gates of Heaven* (1978), Director, Producer, Editor
- *Untitled Ed Gein Documentary*, Director

## Gallery

- ![Errol Morris](https://film.one/media/person/98318/gallery-629a286d64c3.jpg) Errol Morris — Bridget Laudien, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Errol_Morris_by_Bridget_Laudien.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Errol Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American Academy Award-winning documentary film director. This photo was taken on April 27,2008 during a Question &am](https://film.one/media/person/98318/gallery-4c27d8bc7b7e.jpg) Errol Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American Academy Award-winning documentary film director. This photo was taken on April 27,2008 during a Question &am — Bridget Laudien; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 04:32, 16 June 2017 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Errol_Morris_by_Bridget_Laudien_headcrop.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![The Unknown Known - Errol Morris (2013)](https://film.one/media/person/98318/gallery-1a25aacebd94.jpg) The Unknown Known - Errol Morris (2013) — Ross from hamilton on, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/The_Unknown_Known_-_Errol_Morris_%289723018598%29.jpg/1280px-The_Unknown_Known_-_Errol_Morris_%289723018598%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Errol Morris](https://film.one/media/person/98318/gallery-0c8de7125374.jpg) Errol Morris — Image via TMDB
- ![Errol Morris](https://film.one/media/person/98318/gallery-cd57131bcd6a.jpg) Errol Morris — Image via TMDB
- ![Errol Morris](https://film.one/media/person/98318/gallery-bf645ca19bc9.jpg) Errol Morris — Image via TMDB
- ![Errol Morris](https://film.one/media/person/98318/gallery-11c70e0fd812.jpg) Errol Morris — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Other awards — 1 won

- Edgar Awards 1989: Edgar Awards (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/errol-morris