In the heady afterglow of last week’s big election, you’d be forgiven if you missed the results of a smaller, local vote: the 16th Annual Environmental Media Awards. On Wednesday, November 8th, a gaggle of ostensibly eco-inclined industry folk (like, you know, Nicole Richie, posing above with Prius) gathered on the green carpet at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre for an evening honoring the year’s best environmentally-themed film and TV projects.

The awards are put on by the Environmental Media Association, a local non-profit dedicated to fostering environmentalism both behind and in front of the camera “in a global effort to educate people about environmental problems and inspire them to act on those problems now." These folks do great work, from “product placing” earth-friendly props like recycling bins, hybrid cars and canvas shopping bags on film sets to convincing industry execs to make green practices in energy use, resource conservation, and recycling standard Hollywood procedure.

This year’s big winners included Ice Age: The Meltdown, which trumped Hoot and Syriana to take the award for best feature film, and of course, An Inconvenient Truth, which beat Too Hot Not to Handle and Who Killed the Electric Car? in the doc category. Boston Legal’s “Finding Nimmo” episode took the title for Television Episodic Drama and The Simpsons “The Bonfire of the Manatees” won for Television Episodic Comedy. But the EMA’s are less about who takes home the awards statue (a lil’ glass replica of the earth, natch!) and more about recognizing the industry players who believe environmental messages are important and compelling enough to make great entertainment.