The BLUE Ocean Film Festival has announced its roster of more than 100 films and programs that will be screened during this year’s edition, taking place from September 24-30 in Monterey, California.

The finalists for this year’s film competition, initially announced during an online Google+ Hangout event on Sunday, were chosen from over 300 entries. Winners in each category will be announced at the BLUE Carpet awards ceremony taking place during the festival, on September 28, at Monterey’s Golden State Theater.

Finalists in assorted categories include:

3D

Alien Deep: Fires of Creation

Ocean Voyagers 3D

Sea Rex 3D

Universe of the Ocean

BROADCAST

60 Minutes: The Gardens of the Queen

Alien Deep: Inner vs Outer Space

Great Barrier Reef: Nature’s Miracle

Jaws Comes Home

My Father, The Captain: Jacques Yves Cousteau

Ocean Giants

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Planet Ocean

Great Barrier Reef: Nature’s Miracle

Ragged Tooth

Ocean Giants

Light the Ocean

(Honorable Mentions: Alien Deep: It’s Alive, Alien Deep: Fires of Creation, Hot Tuna, Nature’s Dive Bomber, Untamed Americas: Coast)

EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE

Alien Deep: Inner vs Outer Space

Deep Sea Under the Poles

DinoFish

Hunt for the Giant Squid

Whale Wars

(Honorable Mentions: Alien Deep: Fires of Creation, Alien Deep: It’s Alive, Alien Deep: Wrecks of the Abyss, Project Shiphunt)

PRESENTER-LEAD

Alien Deep: Fires of Creation

Great Barrier Reef: Nature’s Miracle

Jonathan Bird’s Blue World: Antarctica

Ocean Stories with Howard & Michele Hall

Universe of the Ocean

THEATRICAL DOCUMENTARY

Otter 501

Pioneers of the Deep

Sea Rex 3D: Journey to a Prehistoric World

The Island President

The Last Reef

(Honorable Mentions: A Fall From Freedom, Eco-Pirate: The Story of Paul Watson, Garden in the Sea, Manufacturing Stoke, Ride a Wave: Live and Love It Up!, The Coral Eden)

A full list of finalists is available here.

The festival is held every two years, and honors the best in ocean filmmaking in addition to hosting a conference component. This year, Lifetime Achievement Awards will be bestowed upon filmmaker James Cameron and ocean explorer Captain Don Walsh, while the 2012 Sylvia Earle Award will honor the late underwater cinematographer Mike deGruy, who died earlier this year in a tragic helicopter accident on Australia’s south coast.

For more information regarding the BLUE Ocean film Festival and conference, click here.