ATLANTA – Steven Spielberg wasn’t at AMC Phipps Plaza movie theater on Tuesday, but his presence was felt.

Terry Press, co-head of marketing for DreamWorks SKG, the movie studio founded by Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1994, arrived in Georgia to promote the studio’s slate of movies set for release this year.

The Spielberg drama “Saving Private Ryan” was a hot topic of pre-show conversation, as was “Deep Impact,” the high-profile meteor movie due May 8.

When the lights dimmed, though, and members of the media and the Atlanta film community got their first looks at the films, it was DreamWorks’ animation department that was receiving the kudos.

Press premiered the opening seven minutes of “The Prince of Egypt,” a $60 million animated epic about the life of Moses, due Dec. 18. Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Sandra Bullock and Michelle Pfeiffer contribute voices to the film.

In what has been perceived as a bold move by some and suicide by others, Press also verified that DreamWorks will not have a toy line associated with “The Prince of Egypt” or a tie-in with any fast food chain, as has become the norm with feature animation. Also going against animation norms, “Egypt” likely will be rated PG. The opening scene, as well as a string of clips shown later, hinted at babies being murdered and had eerily real visual effects, including a Ghost of Death. Press revealed that computers have put in a total of 381,000 hours to create the Red Sea sequence alone.

Previews for “Small Soldiers” and “Antz,” both less-than-traditional animation, also received raves.

“Soldiers,” which started out as a test for Industrial Light and Magic, features a mix of animation and live-action, as military toys come to life and wage war on the lawns of suburbia. The film is due in theaters July 10.

“Antz” will not hit theaters until early 1999, but two completed scenes showed the film’s wizardry with “Toy Story”-like animation. Woody Allen lends his voice to Z, a worker ant who worries about not being his own, um, person.

Little was revealed of the eagerly awaited “Saving Private Ryan,” though it dominated the question-and-answer session. A quick preview explained the plot – a World War II platoon, led by Tom Hanks, is sent behind enemy lines to retrieve a lost soldier (Matt Damon) – but little was shown in the way of scenes.

“After seeing it, nobody will say it’s an average Spielberg film,” Press said, noting the film’s gut-wrenching realism will earn the film “a hard R” rating.

Press also previewed “Deep Impact” and “Paulie,” a children’s comedy about a talking parrot due in April, as well as “In Dreams,” a new thriller from director Neil Jordan (“The Crying Game”), starring Annette Bening and Aidan Quinn.

Press also took a few minutes to work rumor patrol. First, President Clinton does not have a job waiting for him at DreamWorks. Secondly, all three of DreamWorks’ releases thus far – “The Peacemaker,” “Amistad” and “MouseHunt” – have made a profit, despite their perceived failures at the box office. Thirdly, “The Prince of Egypt” was not screened for Pope John Paul II last month but was for a group of Cardinals in Rome. And lastly, and perhaps most outrageously, David Geffen is not married to Keanu Reeves. “Seriously, I get asked that a lot,” Press said.