HRAFF program director Malcolm Blaylock called the film "one of the most important Australian documentaries of 2016."
Selected from eight nominees, the $10,000 cash prize will be presented to the Amazon Australian Original for deepening the knowledge and awareness of the impact of the global climate emergency.
Filmmaker Eva Orner is so angry about the Australian government's policies on asylum seekers she is making a theatrical documentary on the vexed subject.
Chasing Asylum goes inside offshore detention centres, and is billed as "the film the Australian government doesn't want you to see", presenting the personal stories of detainees sent to live indefinitely on Manus Island and Nauru.
Joel Edgerton, Chris Hemsworth, Margot Robbie, Rebel Wilson, Garth Davis, Cate Shortland, Jocelyn Moorhouse and Eva Orner are among the Australians who have been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
The detention-centre documentary will premiere locally May 5 at the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival in Melbourne.
The Australian premiere season begins in Melbourne on May 5 with the sold out Human Rights Arts & Film Festival (HRAFF) opening night.
The Australian International Documentary Conference will welcome back in-person attendance while retaining online components for next year's event, which will carry the theme of Bearing Witness.