Animation shorts from the UK and France have been nominated to the final five for this year's Cartoon D'Or prize which will be presented at the CARTOON Forum in Varese, Italy (September 17-20).

The five nominees are:

Dog by Suzie Templeton (UK)
Ligne De Vie by Serge Auedikian (France)
NSPCC: Cartoon by Russell Brooke (UK)
Sans Queue Ni Tete by Sandra Desmazieres (France)
The Dog Who Was A Cat Inside by Siri Melchior (UK).

83 brand new animation series and one-off programmes with a total budget of Euros 294.2m will be pitched to over 700 delegates at this year's Forum.

UK animation companies including Aardman Animations, Siriol Productions and The Illuminated Film Company are particularly well represented with 22 projects, followed by Italy (17), France (16), Spain (7) and Germany (6).

The Forum organisers report that the economic situation in the animation sector has made producers more cautious and thus the 2003 Forum will feature more short formats. In addition, the cost per minute of the planned programmes has fallen from 2002's Euros 10,555 to Euros 9,146 this year.