MUMBAI: In its endeavour to spread awareness about environmental issues through cinema, the Vasundhara International Film Festival, an annual eco-film fixture, will kick off on 8 July and will travel to 20 cities in four states across India.

The festival will go to Madhya Pradesh (Indore), Karnataka (Hospet and Koppal), Maharashtra (Kolhapur, Sangli, Miraj, Nashik, Nagpur, Amravati, Solapur, Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Ratnagiri, Jalgaon, Thane, Baramati, Satara, Karad and Mumbai) and Goa.

Declared festival director Virendra Chitrav, "The festival will be held in two phases from July to September in 11 cities and from October to December in nine cities. The event that will have 30 national and international award-winning films participating, will get going from Amravati. The films will be screened in each city for four days."

Other scheduled activities include workshops, nature walks, panel discussions, lectures, cultural programmes and book and photography exhibitions.

Delegates will be asked to write slogans on the environment and the best five slogans will win prizes. These will be put up on a tree called the commitment tree at each festival venue.