Twenty-four candidates, including movie directors, journalists, environmentalists, corporate leaders and environment watchdog officials, will compete for ten "Green Chinese" awards.

The list of candidates was made public Monday by the China Environment Culture Promotion Association (CECPA), the event's organizing committee.

They were selected from 280 nominees by respondents to a survey and an online poll as well as a group of judges, according to the CECPA.

The candidates will go through several selection rounds before the final result is released on December 8, the CECPA said.

Zhang Yimou, famous Chinese film director, is among the candidates for following eco-friendly rules during movie shooting and highlighting "green" issues as the chief director for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 2008.

Besides Zhang, there are two directors Zhang Jizhong and Feng Xiaoning on the list. "It shows that China's entertainment industry is paying more and more attention to the environmental issue," said Wang Panpu, the CECPA secretary-general.

Douglas W. Muzyka, president of DuPont Greater China, and Steve Trent, president of the international environmental organization WildAid, are the only two foreigners on the list.

The annual event in its third year kicked off in September and more than 50,000 Chinese took part in nominating candidates by mail, e-mail and fax. 

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2007)