New York-based short film programme CINELAN has announced the 20 finalists in its $200,000 Focus Forward Filmmaker Competition which include films about a low-cost solution to landmine clearance and a model Indian village.

Callum Cooper’s Mine Kafon is a short documentary about a designer from Afghanistan who has invented a wind-powered device that detonates landmines. Christian Amundson and Rajiv Rao’s Protovillage is about an organic, solar-powered village in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

A jury will select five projects from among the finalists, which will receive cash prizes, including the grand jury prize of $100,000, at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. The full list of finalists can be viewed at http://focusforwardfilms.com/finalists

Sponsored by General Electric (GE), CINELAN’s Focus Forward programme is a series of 30 three-minute nonfiction films about innovative people being the catalyst for world change.

The films screen at international film festivals, followed by aday-and-date online release and distribution across multiple platforms. Renowned filmmakers such as Morgan Spurlock and Alex Gibney have contributed to the programme.

Fire With Fire, a new Focus Forward short by Oscar-winning director Ross Kauffman (Born Into Brothels), will world premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival and simultaneously on Dec 13.

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