admin On maggio - 16 - 2014

THIERRY FREMAUX INTRODUCES OFFICIAL CANNES GALA SCREENING OF ‘HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2’ IN AN UNPRECEDENTED MOVE

 

CANNES (May 16, 2014)—In a break with established tradition, Cannes Film Festival artistic director Thierry Fremaux went on stage tonight to introduce the Official Festival Screening of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 as a tribute to long-time friend of the festival Jeffrey Katzenberg and his company DreamWorks Animation on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.

 

Screenings and talent at the Festival are normally introduced by a disembodied “voice of God,” followed immediately by the beginning of the film. In an unprecedented move, Mr. Fremaux welcomed DreamWorks Animation CEO Katzenberg, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON 2 writer/director Dean DeBlois, producer Bonnie Arnold and cast members Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, Cate Blanchett, Djimon Hounsou and Kit Harington.

 

On stage, Fremaux introduced a special reel celebrating DreamWorks Animation’s “20 Years of Dreams and Laughter,” saying, “It is under rather exceptional circumstances that I come up on stage this evening, as DreamWorks Animation is 20 years old this year, and it is an anniversary we would like to celebrate. It was 10 years ago when I had just taken up my position that Jeffrey called saying, ‘I have a movie I’d like to show you.’ ‘An animation movie?’ ‘Yes, an animation movie.’ ‘For the Cannes Film Festival?’ ‘Yes for Cannes.’ And that was not what we usually did. So it was almost out of courtesy, out of politeness, out of friendship, that we accepted to see the movie. The movie was ‘Shrek,’ and we loved ‘Shrek,’ and we loved the idea of seeing ‘Shrek’ on the big Lumière screen.”

 

Fremaux ended his remarks with a warm tribute to Katzenberg: “These moments of cinema, of laughter, of emotion, of friendship, we owe to one man, who I have the pleasure to welcome tonight – Jeffrey Katzenberg! Jeffrey is American animation. I agree, 20 more years Jeffrey, 20 more years of animation cinema in Cannes.”

 

Related Images:

Share

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Sponsor