With the motto “REthink, REplenish, REcommit”, the first-ever Going Green Film Festival launches its official call for entries on July 15. The festival’s first place prizes include Hybrid electric bicycles, a tree planted in their names in Central America, Africa or Asia, as well as film and screenwriting software.

The Going Green Film Festival is the very first festival of it’s kind to focus solely on “green” filmmaking.

“More than ever, it is critical for the film industry—whether big budget or independent—to contribute towards environmental preservation,” says Festival Founder Patrice Williams. “We’ve launched the industry’s first all-green film festival to reward filmmakers who are promoting ways of producing film using alternative materials and environmentally-friendly practices, both in the office and on set.”

Sponsors of the Going Green Film Festival include Fuji Film, 3Degrees Inc., The Daily Green and Google Grants. 3Degrees is providing Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for the festival as part of their mission to reduce the magnitude of climate change by funding clean energy and carbon reduction projects like the Going Green Film Festival.

Films are being considered for three main categories in the festival: GREEN PRODUCTION, where a film’s production worked to lessen the carbon footprint left on the planet (with sufficient documentation of this process); OUR PLANET, where the film’s topic covers third world issues, ecology, nature or the environment; and HYBRID/ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION, where the film features a hybrid vehicle, bicycle, electric scooter or public transportation. Films can be any genre, but must be between 20 minutes and 120 minutes in length and have been completed between 2008 and 2010.

Submission deadlines are staggered throughout the coming months:

• Earlybird: August 31, $45 submission fee (includes $20 donation towards Renewable Energy Certificates [RECs]).
• Standard: November 30, $55 submission fee (includes $20 donation towards RECs).
• Final: January 15, 2010, $65 submission fee (includes $20 donation towards RECs).

Every REC purchased generates one megawatt-hour of renewable electricity delivered to power grids. A portion of the fees collected from every filmmaker will go towards REC’s.

Films may be submitted via website only at www.goinggreenfilmfestival.com (less paper means more green). International filmmakers are welcome to submit; however, they are not eligible for the grand prize and those winning first place must arrange for the shipping of prizes outside the lower 48 states.

The Going Green Film Festival is a fundraiser for the Minorities in Broadcast Training Program (MIBTP), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization formed in 1992 to provide training opportunities to college graduates in TV/radio news reporting, news management and film/TV production. MIBTP can be reached at 310-652-0271 or at emailus@thebroadcaster.com.

More details and news updates on the Going Green Film Festival—as well as best practice guidelines for sustainable filmmaking—can be found at www.goinggreenfilmfestival.com. Anyone subscribing to the Going Green Film Festival e-newsletter at www.goinggreenfilmfestival.com becomes eligible to win two of ten free all-access passes for the festival.