Five new Polish animated series qualified for Cartoon Forum Polska. The 22^nd edition of this event will be held in Sopot on September 13-16, 2011.

Cartoon Forum, taking place in Poland for the first time in the event's history, will present 66 projects to a group of 700 experts from the animated film industry. Considered to be the best place to show European animated series, Cartoon Forum Polska will serve as a promotional platform for Polish animated films.

This year Poland ranks fourth in terms of the number of presented projects - after France, the United Kingdom, and Spain, that will present 21, 14, and 11 projects respectively. The list of Polish projects includes the following pictures: Agata (produced by Serafiński Studio and TV Studio Filmów Animowanych); Basia (produced by Grupa Smacznego); Casparade (produced by Film Produkcja); Pamiętnik Florki (produced by Anima-Pol); and Pluszaki rozrabiaki (produced by Filmograf, Egmont Polska, and Studio Miniatur Filmowych).

In addition to screening these projects, Cartoon Forum Polska will also host Cartoon d'Or 2011, the European award for best short animated film of the year. Paths of Hate by Polish director Damian Nenow is one of six nominated films. Paths of Hate, produced by Warsaw-based Platige Image, received the award for best international short animated film at Mundos Digitales in La Coruña (Spain), and qualified for screening at international film festivals in Annecy and Edinburgh.

This year's edition of Cartoon Forum is particularly interesting due to the significant increase in production budgets of presented projects. The total budgets of qualified films amount to over 214.5 million euros, marking a 30% increase compared to last year. The number of produced films grew by 25%. This year saw the production of a total of 467 hours of animated films.

This year's leader in terms of the number of presented projects is once again France, with 21 projects. The United Kingdom and Spain are in second and third place respectively, having doubled the number of presented projects since last year (14 and 11 respectively). Cartoon Forum will screen film projects from 16 other European countries, which indicates an increasing role in the animated film industry across the whole continent.

Cartoon Forum, known for successfully fostering presented animated film projects into production, is an event organized annually since 1990 by the European Association of Animation Film to encourage production and distribution of European animated series. This will be the second time the event is hosted by a new EU member state; last year's event was held in Hungary.

Cartoon Forum, established in 1990 to increase co-production and distribution of European animated films for television and new media, has helped 450 projects to receive financing amounting to a total of over 1.5 billion euros.

Key partner organizations of Cartoon Forum Polska include the MEDIA programme, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Polish Film Institute, and the City of Sopot authorities.

The list of selected projects is available online: www.cartoon-media.eu/FORUM/selected.

Further details about Cartoon Forum Polska available at: www.cartoon-media.eu.