The 30th Annual Cleveland International Film Festival, which begins March 16, will include the first Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Film Competition. Films shown during the 10-day festival in the Standing Up category focus on social justice and activism messages that seek to improve the world. The winner, to be determined by audience vote, will receive a $5,000 prize. Click here for more information about Standing Up films.

The new competition, which will become an annual event, is funded by an endowment grant from the George Gund Foundation in memory of Greg Gund who died in a plane crash in Costa Rica in 2005. Greg was the son of Foundation Trustee George Gund and a grandson of the Foundation’s founder. A film from Costa Rica, “Caribe," also will be shown in Greg’s memory.