Eligibles for Oscar

Eleven movies including "Shark Tale" and "Shrek 2" are eligible to compete for next year's Academy Award for the best animated feature film, the organisers of cinema's top honours said Friday.

Possible contenders for the Oscar, handed out for the first time in 2002, also include Robert Zemeckis' groundbreaking "The Polar Express," which opens this month, and Disney-Pixar's "The Incredibles."

Also eligible are "Clifford's Really Big Movie," "Disney's Teacher's Pet," "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence," "Home on the Range," "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," "The Legend of Buddha," and "Sky Blue."

Under the rules for the category, a maximum of three films can be nominated in a year in which eight to 16 films are eligible.

Nominations for the 77th annual Academy Awards will be announced on January 25, 2005 and the golden Oscar statuettes will be handed out in Hollywood on February 27.●