This year's Cartoon Movie co-production forum for European animation feature films will open in Potsdam on Wednesday evening March 5 with an avant-premiere screening of Dragon Hunters.

The film's producers Futurikon, Trixter, LuxAnimation and Mac Guff Ligne are also among the nominees for this year's Cartoon Movie Tributes which are awarded in recognition of services to the European animation industry and voted on by the 500 delegates at the three-day event at the Babelsberg studios.

The nominees are:

Best European Director of the Year
Victor Maldonado and Adrián Garcia for Nocturna (Spain)
Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud for Persepolis (France)
Ben Stassen for Fly Me To The Moon (Belgium)

Best European Distributor of the Year
DNC Entertainment (Italy)
Europa Distribution (France)
Kinowelt (Germany)

Best European Producer of the Year
Futurikon (France), Trixter (Germany), LuxAnimation (Luxembourg), Mac Guff Ligne (France) for Dragon Hunters
PH3 ApS for Jungo Goes Bananas (Denmark)
Prima Linea Production for Peur(s)du Noir (France)

French animation studios will be particularly active at this 10th edition of the co-production forum. Of 47 European animation features being presented from 16 countries with total budgets amounting to over Euros 325m, 20 are set to be produced or co-produced by French animation houses, followed by Germany involved with 12 projects, Spain with six, and Denmark and Belgium with five apiece.

Filmax Animation's Donkey Xote and Rothkirch Cartoon Film's Little Dodo are among nine completed projects being shown during the market, while companies such as the UK's Sidewinder Films, Spain's Granada Film Factory and France's Les Armateurs will be pitching projects in the initial concept or development stages.

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