The Vancouver International Film Festival is launching the $25,000 Kyoto Planet ‘Climate for Change’ award — one of the largest cash prizes at any North American fest — marking a new annual environmental film series at the fest. Sponsor Kyoto Planet is an eco-minded social marketing initiative.

‘This is a major and very important development for our festival,’ VIFF director Alan Franey tells Playback Daily.

‘Not only is there a greater audience for films that contend with the challenges our society faces today, but more of the best films made now — and the most artistic ones — engage with issues of man’s relationship to nature,’ he adds. ‘We are delighted to have found a company that is putting its money where its mouth is, and offering something as significant to filmmakers as a $25,000 adjudicated cash prize.’

The series will screen 20 features, with the prize going to the director of the film that best delivers ‘fresh information, vision and cinematic artistry.’ VIFF’s 26th edition runs Sept. 27 to Oct. 12.

Meanwhile, the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of British Columbia was in a generous mood at its recent annual fundraising golf tournament, bucking up $10,000 for the Greater Vancouver Food Bank and $10,000 for the newly established MPPIA Short Film Award, to be presented at the Whistler Film Festival.

MPPIA chair Peter Leitch says the shorts award is a way of both giving back and looking forward. ‘This is an expensive business, and the future of our industry is to nourish homegrown talent,’ he says. ‘We want to keep entrepreneurial filmmakers like Chris Haddock [Intelligence] here.’

The winning applicant will also take home $5,000 from BC Film and up to $100,000 in in-kind support from professionals and consultants, including legal and business affairs advice, production and post-production services, equipment and supplies. Five short-listed filmmakers will pitch their 10-minute visions live at this year’s Whistler fest, with the winner to be announced on the Dec. 2 closing day. The application deadline is Aug. 27.

‘This is a great fit for us,’ says festival cofounder Shauna Hardy. ‘Our vision at the festival has always been to promote and showcase Canadian filmmakers.’