Ron Howard will receive thedirector of the year award at the global exhibitors convention ShoWest beingheld in Las Vegas in March. He will be presented with the award by his partnerin Imagine Entertainment Brian Grazer, who produced Howard's current hit ABeautiful Mind, on March 7 at theShoWest 2002 Gala Awards banquet.

A Beautiful Mind has now grossed over $100m in the domesticmarketplace and is Howard's fifth film to do so after Apollo 13, Ransomand Dr Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

His other films include Splash (1984), Cocoon (1985), Willow (1988), Parenthood (1989), Backdraft (1991), Far And Away (1992), The Paper (1994) and Ed-TV (1999).