The Heartland Film Festival,which takes place in Indianapolis, Indiana, in Oct has announced that it willincrease its prize money for films to $200,000 for its 15th editionthis year.

The festival, which is setfor Oct 19 to 27, will double its grand prize for dramatic feature to $100,000,making it one of the largest single cash prizes given by a film festivalanywhere in the world.

In addition, two new prizeshave been added - a $25,000 prize for best documentary feature and a$10,000 cash prize for best short film.

The cash increases are madepossible by grants from the Lilly Endowment and the Max Simon CharitableFoundation.

The festival was establishedin 1991 to honour film-makers "whose work explores the human journey byartistically expressing hope and respect for the positive values of life."

More information can befound at www.HeartlandFilmFestival.org.