CHRIS MILLER & RAMAN HUI NAMED SHOWEST “ANIMATION DIRECTORS OF THE YEAR”

MILLER & HUI’S WORK TO NEXT BE SEEN IN DREAMWORKS ANIMATION’S SHREK THE THIRD

Photo by Stephen Thorburn

LOS ANGELES — ShoWest has named Chris Miller and Raman Hui ShoWest “Animation Directors of the Year,” it was announced today by Mitch Neuhauser, co-managing director of the event to be held March 12 - 15, 2007 in Las Vegas. Miller and Hui will be presented with the ShoWest Animation Director’s of the Year award at ShoWest’s closing night ceremony on Thursday, March 15 at Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.

“With their innovative work on Shrek and Shrek 2, Chris Miller and Raman Hui have continually raised the bar for animated features and helped DreamWorks Animation become one of the leaders in animated comedy,” said Neuhauser. “We are delighted to recognize Chris Miller and Raman Hui as ShoWest’s Animation Directors of the Year.”

Miller and Hui’s work can next be seen in the DreamWorks Animation SKG film, Shrek the Third, set for release on May 18, 2007. With an all-star cast including Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Rupert Everett, Justin Timberlake and Julie Andrews among others, Shrek the Third continues the journey of the lovable ogre, Shrek. When Shrek married Fiona, the last thing he had in mind was becoming the next King. But when Shrek’s father-in-law, King Harold, suddenly croaks, that is exactly what he faces. Unless Shrek (with the help of his trusted companions Donkey and Puss in Boots) can find a suitable King for Far Far Away, the ogre could be stuck with the job. The most promising candidate, Fiona’s cousin Artie, an underachieving Medieval high school slacker, proves to be more of a challenge than they bargained for.

Making his feature film directing debut with Shrek the Third, Chris Miller joined DreamWorks Animation in 1998 as a story artist on the studio’s first animated comedy, Antz. He went on to work as a story artist on the Academy Award winning hit film Shrek, along with writing additional dialogue and providing the voice of the hilarious Magic Mirror as well as Gepetto. He went on to serve as Head of Story for Shrek 2, which went on to become the highest grossing animated film of all time. In addition to providing various voices for the Shrek films, he also voiced Kowalski the Penguin in Madagascar. Miller has also worked on a wide array of features, commercials, videos, and internet projects, including a short for Steven Spielberg, entitled Steven’s Dream. His commercial work includes spots for Coca-Cola, Canon, The Comedy Channel and FILA, for which he won a Clio Award for best animated commercial.

For over 15 years, Raman Hui has been a major force at PDI/DreamWorks, guiding the animation team from commercials and shorts to feature films. He started at the studio in 1989 working on various commercials and award-winning short films, which led to his position as Lead Character Designer/Supervising Animator on PDI/DreamWorks first full-length computer-animated feature film, Antz. He went on to serve as Supervising Animator on the Academy Award-winning blockbuster Shrek, as well as the follow up Universal Studios theme park attraction Shrek 4D and on the blockbuster Shrek 2. During the past decade at PDI/DreamWorks, Hui has worked on a variety of 3D characters as well as directed, wrote and produced the celebrated PDI/DreamWorks short film, Sleepy Guy.

ShoWest is the largest annual convention for the motion picture industry. It is the only international gathering devoted exclusively to the movie business and the single largest international gathering of motion picture professionals and theatre owners in the world. The 2007 edition of ShoWest will be held March 12 - 15, 2007 at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas and is expected to draw more than 5,000 members of the motion picture industry. Each year, ShoWest attracts delegates from more than 50 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. ShoWest is managed by the Nielsen Business Media, a division of The Nielsen Company.