A young Adelaide girl will get the opportunity to meet her idol when she visits the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) this June.

Nine-year-old Paris Morrison from Norwood will meet artist and film maker Tim Burton when be arrives at ACMI for the grand opening of Tim Burton: The Exhibition.

In conjuction with ACMI curatorial staff she will learn how to construct and present a tour for the exhibition and take a public tour of up to ten visitors.

Paris was granted the opportunity after submitting a video application on YouTube along with over 70 hopefuls from around Australia. There are only eight successful applicants for the Tim Burton Tour Guide opportunity.

Dressed as the Mad Hatter, Paris’ takes us about her house in her video, talking about Burton’s history, artworks and cinematic creations.

Screen Events Manager, Helen Simondson, who managed the application process said

“Paris oozed energy, performance ability, passion and engagement, which are all part of what might make a good tour guide. We’re looking forward to working with her to craft her tour for the exhibition.”

Paris’ application can be seen online via: www.acmi.net.au/burton_tour_guide.htm

Paris is not the only Adelaide resident to be involved in the exhibition.

Adelaide resident, Deane Taylor, who worked with Tim Burton in the early nineties as Art Director on the stop-motion animation The Nightmare Before Christmas, has artwork within the exhibition and will appear at ACMI for a special one-off live event.

Deane was honoured with an Annie Award for Best Individual Achievement for Artistic Excellence in the Field of Animation for this film which been praised as “a stunningly original and visually delightful work of stop-motion animation.”

Deane will visit Melbourne to talk about the craft behind this film which, some 17 years after it premiered, remains a favourite of adults and children the world over. The Art of The Nightmare Before Christmas event will be held at ACMI on Sunday July 18.

Tim Burton: The Exhibition has encouraged fans from around Australia, including excited fans from Adelaide, to visit Melbourne for the opening on Thursday June 24. Tim Burton will be in attendance for a series of sold-out live events as well as a red carpet appearance and a book signing.

The exhibition explores the full scale of Burton’s career, as director, concept artist illustrator and photographer, through hundreds of artworks that spectacularly illuminate the creative vision behind films such as Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland.

Tracing Burton’s visual imagination from his earliest childhood drawings through his mature work in film, the exhibition brings together over 700 examples of rarely or never-before-seen drawings, paintings, photographs, storyboards, movingimage works, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera, and includes an extensive film series spanning his 28-year career.

Tim Burton: The Exhibition is direct from New York’s Museum of Modern Art and is exclusive to ACMI in the southern hemisphere and runs until October 10 2010.

To find out more, visit www.acmi.net.au.