Lucca Animation is principally a competitive festival and this years competition will be divided in two distinct sections, one dedicated to short films, the other to feature films. The films, 50 in all, vary greatly in length, come from all over the world and are substantially representative of all the best known techniques of animation cinema. These are films that differ greatly the one from the other but that all share one common element: each has already received at least one of the principle international awards for animation. The best juries and evaluating panels this decade have in fact already selected each and every film appearing in the competition section of LUCCA ANIMATION 2008. The prizewinners of the four principal animation festivals and of the three most prestigious international prizes have been considered, spanning from 2000 to the most recent Oscars, awarded just under two months ago. This competition compares and contrasts the recognized masterpieces of animation in recent years and therefore could be called nothing other than the Award of Awards: a trophy which seals and celebrates all the others, bringing the newly founded Festival in Lucca immediately in touch with the international competition scene and with contemporary animation.