Nikon has renamed its annual competition for photographers and filmmakers as the Nikon Film and Photo Contest. It was previously known simply as the Nikon Photo Contest, but the new name better reflects that filmmaking has had equal prominence with stills photography for many years.
The 2024-2025 competition opens for entries on October 30 2024 at 00:00 EDT / 04:00 BST / 15:00 AEST. Details for application guidelines and further announcements will be made on the competition's website, as well as its Facebook and Instagram social media channels.
Nikon states that the aim of the competition is to enrich imaging culture, by providing an opportunity for professional and amateur photographers and filmmakers around the world to engage with one another. In the previous Contest, a total of 35,000 participants from 180 countries and regions around the world submitted over 70,000 works.
The Nikon Photo Contest 2022-2023 Single Photo Category Grand Prize winner was Austin Garcia from the Philippines for his Tears in the Rain image (above), who commented:
"I am very grateful to be this year's winner of the Single Photo Award. This photo is very special to me as I relate myself towards the child and her obvious clinging gesture towards her parents. In the case of my photo, it appears to be his father that she is holding on.
"The chaos caused by the water all scattered in the air, bring balance towards the child desperately holding on to what she has. In life, evil and chaos is constantly around us and we must find something worth holding onto, just like my photo."
The Nikon Photo Contest 2022-2023 Super Short Film Category Grand Prize was won by Josh Spindler from the United Kingdom, for his 40-second short Margaret Gallagher is Real (which you can watch below).
The film is a speculative timeline where the climate crisis was forced to tipping point, causing a planetary reaction which changed the way we see the world, where Margaret Gallagher still lives 'off-grid' like she has done her entire life. She talks of the internet and the ever-worsening weather, as we see a glimpse of the blueprint to a way of life that may save us from the end of the world.
On winning his prize, Josh commented: "I am honored to have won the Super Short Film Award with a piece of work that will allow more people across the world to witness, for 40 seconds, the beauty and honesty of one of the most wonderful people I've ever been lucky enough to capture in one of my films. Thank you, Margaret."
The original competition debuted in 1969, and has been running for more than half a century. While it is run and organized by Nikon, it is open to all content creators no matter what camera or video equipment they use. So if you're a Canon, Sony, Fujifilm or even iPhone user, don't let that stop you!
For the 2024-2025 competition, four Grand Prize winners will each take home a prize of ¥500,000 yen (around $3,350 / £2,550 / AU$5,000), a Nikon Z8 and a Z-series lens. Other prizes include a Nikon Z6 III, Nikon Z30, Nikon Z fc and Nikon Z50 cameras.
You might be interested in the best Nikon cameras, along with the best Nikon lenses to use with them, and the best cameras for filmmaking.
