Xposure International Photography & Film Awards
The Awards
A FREE to enter International Photography & Film Awards with a prize pool value of over $50,000 USD across multiple genres. Photographers of all ages, backgrounds, and experience are eligible to enter the Xposure International Awards. We have also included a category for filmmakers. The panel of judges are looking to award an Overall Winner from the photography categories and a winner and runner-up from each category, including moving images & short films. The Jury is looking for unique, exceptional, and high-quality images.
Architectural Photography
Drone Photography
Junior* (Special Rules & Conditions Apply)
Mobile Photography**
Nature & Landscape
Night Photography**
Photojournalism
Portraiture
Short Film & Moving Image
Street Photography
In each category, there will be:
1 Winner
1 Runner-up
5 Additional Nominated Entries (Nominees)
In addition to the category winners, an overall winner will be determined from the highest single image score achieved, regardless of the category entered.
Prizes & Benefits
Overall Winner – $6,000 (USD) / Flights and accommodation to the Awards Ceremony in Sharjah UAE / Included in the Xposure festival exhibition
Category Winners – $3,000 (USD) / Flights and accommodation to the Awards Ceremony in Sharjah UAE / Included in the Xposure festival exhibition
Category Runner-up – $1,500 (USD) / Included in the Xposure festival exhibition / Flights and accommodation to the Awards Ceremony in Sharjah UAE
Nominees – Online Exhibition/image displayed during the Xposure Festival
* Junior Category for under 18 – UAE Residents. This is a restricted “Junior” category for residents of the United Arab Emirates under 18. non-cash prizes of digital camera equipment, and included in the Xposure festival exhibition.
* Junior Category under 18 ‘Winner & Runner-up’ non-cash prizes of digital camera equipment and included in the Xposure festival exhibition.
** This category is sponsored by Samsung Galaxy, who are providing supplementary prizes in addition to the main cash prize provided by Xposure.”
Rules
Who may enter?
This competition is FREE to enter and open to all nationalities over the age of 18. There is a Junior Category for under 18’s residents in the UAE.Employees of Sharjah Government Media Bureau, and each of their affiliates, subsidiaries, and agents, are not eligible to enter or win a prize in the main categories, however, there is a restricted category for Sharjah Government employees.
How to enter
For the photography categories, images must be submitted through our online awards platform at XPOSURE AWARDS The images should be suitable for public display, printing, and publication in the Xposure Year Book.
The JPG file format should be used and the preferred resolution is 300 dpi and preferably in a ratio of 3:2. IMPORTANT: Image and film filenames for upload should only use normal western characters & numbers. Special characters or symbols may prevent a successful upload.
For the film category, you can upload your file in MP4 format with a maximum file size of 900MB and running time between 3 minutes and 20 minutes. Scripts together with other information may be referenced. Uploads are accepted through the awards platform in the respective category.
More detail for photo submissions
The preferred image size should be close to 5,000 pixels on the longer dimension. We accept images that were not captured at this resolution as long as they are over 2,700 pixels on the long dimension. (check for alternative variations in category descriptions)
To enter electronically, you must first register online. Once the registration process has been completed, you will receive an e-mail confirmation. Just log into the competition and follow the instructions to upload images from your computer. Digital images should have a long dimension of at minimum 1,500 pixels and be saved at 300 dpi, as a jpeg file. We can accept images that are up to 7 megabytes uncompressed if you cannot downsize the pictures. (Uncompressed means the size you see in Photoshop’s “Image Size” display which represents the count of pixels in the image. It is not the file size on your computer’s hard drive viewable on your desktop.) Images may be colour profiled in sRGB, Adobe-1998, or not colour-managed.
You may enter up to ten (10) images or films per user distributed in any ratio across the awards categories and each entry must be allocated to the category selected from the drop-down selection box. (see categories). To enable entrants to submit across multiple categories only one image may be uploaded at a time.
To qualify, your photographs or films must be taken or produced in the past 3-years.
A Photo entry consists of one photo or film, in addition to the completed Title, Caption, Place Taken. In the case of Short Films, you do not enter Place Taken or Caption.
Each submitted photograph, in its entirety, must be a single work of original material taken by the competition entrant. By entering the contest, the entrant represents, acknowledges, and warrants that he or she has full power and authority to enter the photograph and that the photograph does not infringe any copyright or violate any other intellectual property rights. The entrant agrees to indemnify Sharjah Government Media Bureau from any and all third-party claims arising from the photograph.
Unless in a category specifically designed for photo manipulation entries should not include adding or removing content or staging a photograph to mislead the viewer. Adjustment of levels, colour, contrast, and brightness are permitted.
Photographs that include sculptures, statues, paintings, and other works of art will be accepted as long as they do not constitute copyright infringement or fraud, provided that entrants are prepared to submit a release form as described below in “Third Party Releases/Licenses.” When photographing the work of others, it must be as an object in its environment and not a full-frame close-up of another person’s art.
Photographs that include a watermark or name that is not part of the original image capture will be disqualified.
Nominated finalists will be notified and asked to submit High-Resolution TIFF and RAW files. These files will be used for verification before the final announcement of the winners.
Short film entries can be in any language but if submitted with other than the spoken English language, then English subtitles should be present.
The running time of film entries must be at least 3 minutes and no greater than 20 minutes. Entries that are less than 3 minutes, will be excluded from judging.
The entries will be judged in accordance with the Judging Criteria, as defined in judging and awards. The photograph or film must not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of the Sponsors, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content. Photographs deemed inappropriate will be disqualified without notice.
Online entries must be made by a user registered online at our awards platform and by the authorized account holder of the e-mail address submitted at the time of entry. “Authorised account holder” is defined as the natural person who is assigned to an e-mail address by an Internet access provider, online service provider, internet domain owner, or other person or organization (e.g., business, educational institution, etc.) that is responsible for assigning e-mail addresses for the domain associated with the submitted e-mail address
Qualification
All submitted images will be screened by the Moderators to ensure that no offensive or culturally sensitive material is presented to the Jury. Submissions will either be approved or rejected at this stage. Any offensive or incorrectly categorised entries will be removed from the competition without notice.
How to Apply
For more information and job application details, see; Xposure International Photography & Film Awards
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