KEY DATES

Judging dates:
News: Feb. 5–9
Sports and Portraits: Feb. 11–12
Reportage: Feb. 15–18
Team: Feb. 20–27


CONTACT

Pictures of the Year International
Phone: 573-884-7351
Email: info@poy.org
Web: www.poy.org

Mailing address:
Attn: Lynden Steele
Pictures of the Year International
Reynolds Journalism Institute
Missouri School of Journalism
401 S. Ninth St., Suite 315
Columbia, MO 65211
USA


AWARDS

Individual category winners:
• 1st — Engraved plaque
• Finalist and Award of Excellence — PDF Certificate

$1,000 cash prizes & Tiffany crystal trophy:
• International Photographer of the Year
• Photographer of the Year
• World Understanding Award
• Community Awareness Award
• Environmental Vision Award

Tiffany crystal trophy::
• Sports Photographer of the Year
• Documentary Storyteller of the Year
• Photography Book of the Year
• Visual Editor of the Year

Angus McDougall Excellence in Editing Award:
Winner hosts a sterling silver trophy for one year and receives free tuition to the Missouri Photo Workshop.

All winners will be posted to social media soon after the jury makes its decisions. An official announcement will be made after the competition ends and the results are verified.

For winning entries, POY requires high resolution copies of the images and digital files of the films and online entries.

POY 81 livestream judging has concluded

We are in the process of posting the winners to our gallery page.

Please go to our Facebook page to see the recordings.

The Winners Gallery

POY entry rules and specifications

POY81 Categories

We are pleased to announce the 81st annual Pictures of the Year International competition will begin accepting entries on Dec. 17. The deadline is Jan. 14, 2024, 11:59 p.m. CST.

With the new year, there are some things to note. We are changing the entrance fee. It is $50 per person to register until Jan. 7, 2024. On Jan. 8, the fee will increase to $60 per person. It is the first time we have raised the fee since we started accepted entrance fees more than 20 years ago. Regardless of when you register and pay, you may submit photos until Jan. 14. The fee does not affect the deadline.

We know the entrance fee is a significant sum and are grateful for your support and trust. POY is a non-profit educational program. Approximately 40% of your fees goes directly to the students who manage POY. Additionally, your entrance fee supports the award money as well as POY Latam and POY Asia, which do not charge entrance fees. Your support keeps POY programs open to photographers working in dozens of countries around the world.

A word on AI images. POY will not accept AI-generated images or text in any category. Photojournalism is based on eye-witness reporting with a camera. We would not accept AI images any more than we would accept a painting.

The rules regarding manipulation stay the same as in previous years. Entries must not be digitally manipulated or altered through post-production processing. Routine post-production processing of images for exposure correction, white balance and color toning is acceptable. Adding, altering, or removing elements is not permitted. Color images should replicate what the human eye experiences. Flagrant pre- or post-production effects that use excessive tonal aberrations, textures, vignettes, color saturation or other manipulations may be disqualified.

POY is dedicated to principals of journalistic freedoms. We will not accept manipulated images. Nor will we accept images and stories from government agencies or state-sponsored media that do not practice editorial independence. Additionally, we do not accept entries in which the subject is also the employer or restricted access was granted only to photographers hired by the organizing agency, such as a political party or a corporation. For example, you cannot submit entries that feature your employer.

The list of categories can be found here

Each year we feature categories that focuses on especially impactful news. This year the categories are Impact 2023: Israel-Hamas War (single images) and Impact 2023: Israel-Hamas War Picture Story. The categories will focus on the conflict as well as the responses felt around the world.

The judging will be virtual. POY curators will vote in the first rounds on their own. We will then meet for the final rounds of discussion and voting, which will be livestreamed Feb. 5 through Feb. 27, 2024.

We are excited to come together virtually as a community and recognize the incredible dedication of photojournalists throughout the world. We believe that by hosting a transparent, juried competition in which photographers and editors share their own humanity through honest discussion of journalistic work, POY builds public trust in journalism and the people who practice it. As our founder Cliff Edom stated, “Show truth with a camera.”

COPYRIGHTS & USAGE STATEMENT

By entering this competition, you declare that you meet the eligibility requirements stated in the rules of the competition and that you are authorized by the holder of the copyright (or the right to copyright) to submit photos and multimedia entries to the Pictures of the Year International (POY, POYi) competition. You grant permission to Pictures of the Year International, the Reynolds Journalism Institute and the Missouri School of Journalism and POY programs (such as CPOY, POY Asia, POY Latam and the POY Archive) to use your submitted material in exhibitions, publications, in promotion of the competition itself, and for educational research and historical record purposes concerning Pictures of the Year International. This usage includes, but is not limited to print, electronic and online platforms such as the CPOY, POY or MU websites, social media, books, slides/tapes, television broadcast/film/tapes, DVDs and CDs. Entries may become part of the permanent POY archive.

Pictures of the Year International is a program of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. The University of Missouri is a public, tax-exempt educational institution of the State of Missouri. POY provides an educational mission for career development and student advancement, without profit. To achieve the educational mission of the competition, POY requests up to $60 per person (U.S. dollars) compensation to cover the costs associated with operation of the competition.