Jim Macaulay was a Scottish scriptwriter and animator. Early in his career, he worked on 35 mm commercials for Odeon Cinemas, and following the closure of Gaumont British Animation, he moved to Scotland. In 1950, he married Eunice Bagley. While working for the Glasgow-based production Templar Film Studios, he was appointed assistant to documentary filmmaker Hilary Harris, who was making Seawards the Great Ships. The documentary won the Academy Award for the Best Short Subject in 1962. Following the win, Macaulay received an an invitation to join the National Film Board of Canada's animation department and moved to to Montreal, Canada. He worked as an animation instructor at the Sheridan Institute's School of Animation in Ontario until his retirement in 1988.