Every year since 1991, the organization CARTOON, with the support of the MEDIA program of the European Union, selects one short European animated film as the Cartoon DOr, or best European animation film. Nominees are selected from the list of top prize-winning and recommended films from participating European animation festivals: Annecy, Brussels, Cardiff, Espinho, Stuttgart, Utrecht and, new this year, Oslo. The director of the Cartoon DOr winning film will receive 25,000 ECU (approximately U.S. $25,000) to spend on a new animation project. This years nominees are Famous Fred by Joanna Quinn (U.K., her third nomination), Frontière by Christian Fisher (Germany) and Maud Gravereaux (France), Heavy Stock, the Sound of the Railway by Michael Salkeld (U.K.), LEnfant au Grelot by Jacques-Remy Girerd (France), Sientje by Christa Moesker (Netherlands) and T.R.A.N.S.I.T. by Piet Kroon (Netherlands). A winner will be selected at the 1998 Cartoon Forum in Syros, Greece, September 23-27. The 1998 CARTOON Forum will be reviewed by Marie Beardmore in the November 1998 issue of Animation World Magazine. Plus, the organization CARTOON was profiled by Heikki Jokinen in the October 1997 issue of Animation World Magazine.
