A record 1,000 entries from more than 40 countries were submitted for the 11th International Animation Film Festival Stuttgart which will be staged from March 22-27 showing a total of 425 films with enlarged competition sections and a more international slant.

This year, four competitive sections - International Competition, Young Animation, Tricks for Kids and Feature Animation - will offer a total of Euros 54,500 in prize-money.

The International Competition, for example, will feature six world premieres - including Daniel Nocke's Der Moderne Zyklop (Germany), Sylvie Bringas' Room Service (UK) and Anthony R. Lawrence's Looking For Horses (Australia) - and twelve German premieres ranging from Barry J.C. Purves' Hamilton Mattress (UK) and Kirsten Winter's Escape (Germany) through Phil Mulloy's The Invasion (UK) and Florence Miaihle's Au Premier Dimanche D'aout (France) to Katrine Talks' A Life In The Day Of A Dog (Denmark), while the Feature Animation competition has Bill Plympton's Mutant Aliens, Richard Linklater's Waking Life and Rintaro's Metropolis (inspired by Fritz Lang's film and Osamu Tezuka's Manga classic of the same name) in its lineup.

In addition, the festival will present a showcase of the animation scene in Stuttgart-Ludwigsburg; studio presentations by Hahnfilm, LA-based Klasky Csupo, France's Studio Folimage and Estonia's Eesto Jonifilm; a focus on new Russian animation; the sidebar "In Persona" spotlighting the puppet animator Katariina Lillqvist (Finland), Gil Alkabetz (Germany), Mark Baker (UK) and Jiri Barta (Czech Republic); a survey of the best works from four leading European film schools Royal College of Art London, HFF Potsdam-Babelsberg, VGIK Moscow und FAMU Prague; and a children's workshop with private broadcaster Super RTL.