IBC, the leading event in electronic media worldwide, has announced that its International Honour for Excellence 2008 will be presented to Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation SKG. The award will be presented during this year's event which takes place in Amsterdam in September.

"I am thrilled to be among the distinguished list of recipients to have received an International Honour 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 emphasise the growing importance of 3D in movie entertainment, and the part in it played by DreamWorks, IBC will mark the award to Jeffrey Katzenberg by interviewing him live from Los Angeles, in 3D. He will be interviewed by Elizabeth Daley, dean of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, 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 has 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 such landmark animated films as Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.

Peter Owen, chair of the IBC Council, 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 Honour 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 realise popular storytelling in new and imaginative ways," he continued. "We are delighted that Jeffrey Katzenberg has accepted this award, and we very much look forward to his debate with Elizabeth Daley which is sure to be one of the highlights of IBC2008."

The IBC International Honour for Excellence is awarded each year to an individual or body which has made an outstanding contribution to advances in technology, creativity or productivity in electronic media. Previous winners have included Steve Wozniak, Aardman Animations, Ray Dolby, James Cameron and Ted Turner. The International Honour for Excellence 2008 will be presented to Jeffrey Katzenberg as part of his live interview which will take place on Sunday 14 September, starting at 18.20 in The IBC Big Screen at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam.