Mumbai: IBC has announced that its International Honor for Excellence 2008 will be presented to DreamWorks Animation SKG CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. The award will be presented during this year’s event at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam on 14 September, starting at 18:20.
"I am thrilled to be among the distinguished list of recipients to have received an International Honor for Excellence," Katzenberg said. "At DreamWorks Animation we aim to create and deliver quality and innovative entertainment for family audiences across the globe, and I am very grateful to IBC for acknowledging our efforts in this area. As we enter the year of 3D, I have never experienced a more dynamic and exciting time within the film industry than right now."
To emphasize the growing importance of 3D in movie entertainment and the part played by DreamWorks, IBC will mark the award to Katzenberg by interviewing him live from Los Angeles, in 3D. He will be interviewed by University of Southern California dean Elizabeth Daley with the 3D HD television signal sent live to Amsterdam where it will be shown on the IBC Big Screen. It is believed that this will be the first time ever that a live, high definition, stereoscopic interview will been delivered over a transatlantic link.
DreamWorks Animation was a division of DreamWorks SKG until October 2004, when it became a separate company. Under Katzenberg’s leadership, DreamWorks Animation has enjoyed a number of critical and commercial successes, including Madagascar, Shark Tale, the three Shrek movies, and Kung Fu Panda. Shrek and Wallace & Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit were each winners of the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film and Shrek 2 is the highest grossing animated feature film of all time.
Prior to co-founding DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen in October 1994, Katzenberg served as chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. During his tenure, the studio produced animated films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.
IBC Council chairman Peter Owen said, "IBC now reaches every aspect of the electronic media industry— technical, creative, and commercial, and we constantly strive to remember that the technology exists just to support those who make possible great television and movies.
"Our International Honor for Excellence, the highest award we bestow, goes to someone who has the vision to seize on the technologies of today and tomorrow and use them to help realize popular storytelling in new and imaginative ways," he continued. "We are delighted that Katzenberg has accepted this award, and we very much look forward to his debate with Daley which is sure to be one of the highlights of IBC2008."
