One of the most acclaimed visual effects artists in Hollywood, Bruno won the Academy Award in this field for 1989's THE ABYSS and was nominated five other times. He was already at work on what could have been his seventh nomination and second Oscar - visual effects supervisor on his friend James Cameron's epic blockbuster TITANIC (1997) - when he got the opportunity to direct VIRUS.
Bruno began his film career in the animation department at Disney in 1969. He later worked in makeup design, chalking up credits like YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) and BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES. Still in animation, he worked as a director on the animation classic HEAVY METAL (1981).
A stint with George Lucas' ILM followed, where he served as department supervisor for animation effects on POLTERGEIST, E.T. - THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL, STAR TREK II and RETURN OF THE JEDI. He left ILM and co-founded Boss Film Studios, where he supervised effects on GHOSTBUSTERS (1984) and POLTERGEIST II (1986), for which he received his first two Oscar nominations.
THE ABYSS (1989) marked the beginning of a ten-year association with Cameron, which went on to include the feature films TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991), TRUE LIES (1994) and TITANIC. Bruno worked on TITANIC in 1995 during its pre-production period and had the extraordinary opportunity of being one of only 35 people to make two dives to view the famous ship in its underwater grave.
One of the most ambitious projects of this friendship was TERMINATOR 2 - 3D (1996), a Universal Studios Florida theme park attraction with multiple 3-D film projectors and interactive live performers, which he co-directed with Cameron.
In between projects with Cameron, Bruno returned to Boss Film to supervise effects on BATMAN RETURNS (1992) and CLIFFHANGER (1993), for which he received two more Oscar nominations. Later credits include AVP: ALIEN VS. PREDATOR (2004) and X-MEN: THE LAST STAND (2006).
Nominated for Visual Effects 1984: GHOSTBUSTERS (w. Richard Edlund, Mark Vargo & Chuck Gaspar)
Nominated for Visual Effects 1986: POLTERGEIST II (w. Richard Edlund, Garry Waller & William Neil)
Best Achievement in Visual Effects 1989: THE ABYSS (w. Dennis Muren, Hoyt H. Yeatman, Jr. & Dennis Skotak)
Nominated for Visual Effects 1992: BATMAN RETURNS (w. Michael Fink, Craig Barron & Dennis Skotak)
Nominated for Visual Effects 1993: CLIFFHANGER (w. Neil Krepela, John Richardson & Pamela Easley)
Nominated for Visual Effects 1994: TRUE LIES (w. Thomas L. Fisher, Jacques Stroweis & Patrick McClung)
6 nominations, 1 Award