A quick note to let you know that the top 20 finalists in the Bento&co Contest 2011 (announced here previously) has started! Check out the entries on their blog. At the moment the instructions are in French only, but they promise that the English instructions will be posted soon. (Update: here are the official English instructions!) In the meantime, you can already cast your vote, in one of two ways. If you are on Facebook, just go to the Bento&co page and "Like" them. Then click here to go to contest voting page and click the 'Participer' button. If you're not on Facebook, you can also send in your vote by email to contest2011@bentoandco.com.

Personally, it was really hard just choosing 20 out of more than 220 entries; a few of my absolute favorites did not make the final cut actually (since it is a consensus vote and all). Maybe I'll get permission to post pics of my personal favorites after the contest is done. In any case, it's quite clear that the level of bento-making is really going up and up! Anyway, if you made it to the top 20, congratulations, and good luck for getting the big prizes! If not - there's always another contest coming up I'm sure ^_^.