DreamWorks to Preview ‘How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World’ Footage at Annecy Animation Festival
Even without a feature release this year, DreamWorks Animation (led by President Chris deFaria) will be very active at the 42nd Annecy International Animation Film Festival (June 11-16). Director Dean DeBlois will present work-in-progress footage on June 14 from the final chapter in the “How to Train Your Dragon” trilogy, now titled “The Hidden World.” The first DreamWorks feature to be distributed by Universal Pictures, “The Hidden World” (produced by Brad Lewis and Bonnie Arnold) opens March 1, 2019.
DreamWorks will additionally open and close the festival with the first two shorts from its new animated shorts program: “Bird Karma” (a Family Film winner at the San Francisco Film Festival) and “Bilby.” Directed by William Salazar and produced by Jeff Hermann, the 2D “Bird Karma” chronicles a long-legged bird’s journey. “Bilby,” directed by Liron Topaz, Pierre Perifel, and JP Sans, and produced by Hermann and Kelly Cooney Cilella, offers an unlikely friendship in the Australian Outback between the rabbit-like Bilby and a tiny bird. Both will be qualified for Oscar consideration.
In addition, to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of “The Prince of Egypt,” Annecy will debut a fully remastered print (the date is not set). Released in December 1998, and directed by Brenda Chapman, Steven Hickner, and Simon Wells, the film won the Oscar for the Best Original Song, “When You Believe.”
Meanwhile, DreamWorks Animation Television will present “A Conversation with Rodrigo Blaas” as part of the MIFA Campus on June 12th. The Emmy-winning director and executive producer of “Trollhunters” will share a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the Netflix series created by Guillermo del Toro. Blaas will also offer a sneak peek of the upcoming Netflix original series “3 Below,” the next chapter in Guillermo del Toro’s “Tales of Arcadia” trilogy.
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