Jeffrey Katzenberg has earned a place in cinema history for his tremendous contribution to the development and production of high quality, award-winning, and immensely popular and successful animated feature films, in addition to all of his other motion picture and television work over more than 25 years.

Mr. Katzenberg, a principal partner in DreamWorks SKG, served as a producer on DreamWorks' computer animated blockbuster Shrek, which won numerous awards, culminating with the first-ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Shrek was also one of the top-grossing films of 2001 and the second highest grossing animated film of all time. Mr. Katzenberg was more recently a producer on the traditionally animated musical Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. He previously served as an executive producer on the clay animated feature Chicken Run; the traditionally animated epic The Prince of Egypt, which won an Oscar® for Best Original Song ("When You Believe"); and on The Road to El Dorado.

DreamWorks' animated films have been a huge financial, popular, and critical success. Shrek, released in 2001, Chicken Run (2000), The Prince of Egypt (1998), and Antz (1998) alone account for approximately one billion dollars in gross worldwide box office receipts.

Prior to DreamWorks, Mr. Katzenberg was chairman of Walt Disney Studios and helped spearhead the studio's animation renaissance. While he was at Disney, the company released such animated features as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and the extraordinary blockbuster The Lion King. The Lion King (1994) ranks in the top ten of all-time worldwide box office totals, having earned roughly three-quarters of a billion in gross box office receipts. Aladdin (1992) brought in a half-billion dollars worldwide, Beauty and the Beast (1991) approximately $350 million, and The Little Mermaid (1989) more than $220 million.

Beauty and the Beast received six Academy Award nominations and won Oscars® for its score and the song "Beauty and the Beast," The Lion King received four nominations, winning the Oscar® for its score and the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight," Aladdin received five nominations, winning Oscars® for the score and the song "A Whole New World," and The Little Mermaid received three nominations and won Academy Awards for the score and the song "Under the Sea."

Some of the live action feature films released during Mr. Katzenberg's time at Disney include Outrageous Fortune (1987), Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989), and Pretty Woman (1990).

Mr. Katzenberg was born in New York in 1950. In the mid-1970s, he was an assistant to Barry Diller who was then the chairman and CEO of Paramount. Mr. Katzenberg worked his way up at Paramount, eventually becoming president in the early-1980s.

Jeffrey Katzenberg serves on the boards of the Motion Picture and Television Fund, the American Museum of the Moving Image, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, California Institute of the Arts, The Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, among others. He is also co-chairman of the Professional Status of Writers Committee of the Writers Guild of America.

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The Hollywood Film Festival® is pleased to announce the creation of the Hollywood Tex Avery Animation Award™ in 2002, named for legendary pioneer animator Tex Avery (1908-1980). (See Christopher Vogler's salute to Tex Avery -- "The Hilarious Nightmares of Tex Avery: An Appreciation of a Cartoon Genius") The Festival is also proud to honor Jeffrey Katzenberg with its inaugural Hollywood Tex Avery Animation Award™. His well-known passion for animation is almost unparalleled in the film industry. As a studio executive, as a producer, and as an unabashed fan, he has made invaluable contributions to the art form on every level.