The UK's First Film Foundation and the Paramount Comedy Channel have announced the shortlisted scriptwriters and directors in the Comedy Shorts Initiative 2001.

Four scripts and five directors have been shortlisted from a total of more than 700 submitted scripts and showreels The judging panel, which currently includes Bruce Robinson, Stephen Fry, Duncan Kenworthy, Ricky Gervais and Doug Naylor, will choose the overall winning script and director, to be announced on 17th October.

The shortlisted scripts are:
Harold The Amazing Contortionist Pig by Ewan Kilgour
Here's Looking At You Kid by Ronan Blaney
Where Wolf' by Craig James
DIY Hard by Linda Cotterill

The five shortlisted directors are:
Campbell Graham, with a showreel of short films including Dare, Splat, Blush and His 'n Hers
Jocelyn Cammack with a showreel of short films including Better Or Worse' and Own Goal
Andy Shelley with a showreel of short films including Granpa and Hammerman
Pat Holden with a showreel of ads including Wispa Bite with Ant and Dec and the Muller Light Pleasure & Pain with Reeves and Mortimer.
Bill Scott with his short film Wind

The winner will have their short film made by the First Film Foundation towards the end of the year. The winning comedy short will then be screened theatrically across UCI's UK cinema circuit.