Biomovies competition opens for films on environment

The Biomovies competition, now in its second year and run byTVE, has announced the launch of this year's competition and invites proposals for short films from amateur film-makers around the globe.

Shortlisted entrants receive a US$ 300 budget to produce a finished film. The overall winners of each category will each receive US$ 1,500 in prize money and will have the chance to have their work screened at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban in December 2011.

The EBRD is one of five sponsors of the TVE film competition for short films on the global environment. There are five categories in the competition each examining different aspects of the environment: oceans, energy, water, forests and people living with nature.

Through the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund, the Bank is sponsoring the prize in the category "The impact of water".

This category is open to anyone in the Bank's current 29 countries of operations as well as the four potential new countries: Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

The EBRD recognises the vital impact water can have on people’s health and quality of life and has sponsored several projects in its countries of operations which focus on improving water quality and supply.

“Climate change is impacting on the amount of available water to people. It is an issue throughout our countries of operations,” stresses Craig Davies from the Environment and Sustainability department. “We hereby call upon the creative talent in the region to illustrate what the dangers of living without clean, running water are and how they would address the environmental challenges facing the world.”

This is the second year the UK-registered charity TVE, which was founded by Central TV, the UN Environment Programme and WWF, is running the film competition.

“We were thrilled with the creativity of last year’s entries,” says Cheryl Campbell, TVE’s Executive Director. “This year’s competition promises to be even bigger and better. We’re delighted to have the support of YouTube this year to make sure we reach an even wider audience and – thanks to all our donors – we have five exciting and diverse categories for entries."