Attention cartoon fans! Sydney Opera House in Australia has just moved into round 2 of their global GRAPHIC animation competition.

It's part "of the GRAPHIC 2011 festival of storytelling, animation and music."

In round 2, they've narrowed the field to 10 1-minute animated shorts by a host of creative folks - if you love the short cartoons and want to see some terrific animation in a variety of styles get over to their website and watch and vote.

And feel free to vote for Dave Barton Thomas' short, Kissing Gramma. He's a friend of mine, he won last year, and we have a project together - not this one - that we're hoping goes somewhere.

Best of all, the winner will receive $20,000 in prize money - "to be used for professional development or to make a feature" - and have their entry screened before the festival’s headline event on Sunday 21 August in the Concert Hall. That headline event? Robert Crumb: In Conversation with Gary Groth.

Other events at the festival include: "a screening of Shaun Tan’s Oscar-winning short, The Lost Thing with the original score performed live; the Australian premiere of cult anime Tekkon Kinkreet with live music by PLAID (WARP), FourPlay and Synergy Percussion; the Sydney premiere of Talking with Gods: A Grant Morrison Documentary; a performance and talk by Parappa the Rapper Playstation game creator, Masaya Matsuura; a screening of selected animations from some of China’s best emerging talent along with talks and masterclasses including Understanding Comics with Scott McCloud; and the Best of the Independent Games Festival exhibition. Other guests include comic book author and toy designer Jim Woodring and artist and musician, Reg Mombassa, and Nathan Jurevicius, the Australian artist best known for his Scarygirl brand."

If you're still making your animation and comic book-based holiday plans, it would appear that Sydney is one of the places to go in August.

[Artwork: Kissing Gramma by Dave Barton Thomas]