The environment plays a starring role in this year's VIFF through the fest's new Climate for Change series.

Showcasing 12 films about the environment, Climate for Change will spotlight the best with a $25,000 cash award to the director of a film which best delivers "fresh information, vision and cinematic artistry."

Vying for the prize are 10 nonfiction flicks, including Laura Dunn's debut doc Unforeseen (U.S.), about Texans who fight a subdivision developer who wants to destroy their local limestone aquifer swimming hole; 4 Elements (Netherlands), where fire, water, earth and air are seen through the experiences of Siberian smokejumpers, Alaskan king crab fishers, German miners and Russian cosmonauts; and Man on Land (France), a docu-essay set in Greenland about the clash between humans and animals.

Contenders for the prize also include Bing Ai (China), a 10-year chronicle about a peasant woman who refuses to move from her home by the Yangtze River's Three Gorges Dam Project; Keepers of Eden (U.S.), which follows an Ecuadorian native tribe in the Amazon basin battle against the oil industry; and About Water (Austria), which is about water and how it is becoming a precious commodity.

The two nonfiction entries are The Green Chain (Canada), written and directed by Vancouverite Mark Leiren-Young, which combines seven monologues reflecting diverse perspectives on B.C.'s controversial logging industry, and Khadak (Belgium/Germany/Netherlands), a film about the fate of Mongolia's nomads.

Sponsor Kyoto Planet is an eco-minded social marketing initiative.