Combining premieres with political discussions, the Planet in Focus festival presents a unique blend of art and eco-activism. This year’s festival, running Wednesday to Sunday in Toronto, includes a spotlight on films about food, three Eco-Hero awards and the launch of a new environmental guide for the media industry.

The Green Resource Guide, which will be launched on Friday, and the festival’s pitch sessions speak volumes about Planet in Focus’ mix of practicality and idealism.

‘I think the economy and the environment are inextricably linked. But I think there was a dichotomy created during the election between these two things,’ says artistic director Candida Paltiel. The Green Pitch offers $6,000 in cash and services towards a future project. Famously, the hit doc Up the Yangtze is a previous winner.

‘It’s imperative that festivals like ours and groups that are involved in the environmental arena keep appealing to the public’s consciousness — or interest can get eroded,’ says Paltiel.

PiF’s opening gala Blue Gold: World Water Wars is a hard-hitting doc based on the acclaimed book by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke, co-executive produced by The Corporation‘s Mark Achbar. ‘Water is one of the most critical issues affecting Canada,’ says Paltiel. ‘How are we going to deal with our most precious resource?’

Photographer Ed Burtynsky will be on hand opening night to receive the Industry Media Eco-Hero award, while his fellow recipients, Canadian food activist Wayne Roberts and international prize-winning Italian author Carl Petrini (Slow Food Nation), are to be acknowledged on Thursday night.

Burtynsky, who starred in Jennifer Baichwal’s Genie-winning doc Manufactured Landscapes, is ‘a natural choice,’ according to Paltiel. ‘His work is emblematic of artistic environmental expression.’

Bruce Cockburn stars in another Toronto festival premiere, Robert Lang’s Return to Nepal, which documents the famous Canadian musician’s encounters with the people and country he last journeyed through in 1987. ‘It’s wonderful to see a celebrity not just pay lip service but actually engage with people on the issues affecting their lives,’ enthuses Paltiel.

Conservation and sustainability are at the core of PiF’s mandate, which makes Paltiel’s choice of focusing on food-related films an apt one. ‘We knew that something was coming — some sort of global food crisis. The relationship between economics and climate change and basic food security has reached an apex in the past year.’

Films featured in this section include: Michael Schmidt: Organic Hero or Bioterrorist and the children’s film highlight Global Food: Once Upon a French Fry.