News Photo Awards. Overcoming COVID jury's assessment kicks off

“Now the contest’s jury is facing one of the most significant stages — acquainting themselves with the images and selecting the best ones from them. We received a lot of powerful snapshots, and I have no doubt that making a decision will be extremely difficult. Still, I am convinced that the high level of professionalism, rich experience, and maximum impartiality of the jury members will serve as the pillars that will empower them to make the right choice,” said Grigory Dukor, Head of the Photo and Video Department at the TASS Russian News Agency.

All the works that the jury panel will have to select and evaluate are assessed anonymously. Only the title of the photo and its brief description is specified. This condition will ensure that the voting is as impartial as possible.

The contest’s professional jury is made up of photojournalists from leading international media outlets, including the Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, Kyodo News, TASS, ANSA, PA Media, NOOR, Yonhap, the Anadolu Agency, and the Xinhua Agency. 

The second stage of voting, during which the jury members will have to choose the winners of the News Photo Awards. Overcoming COVID contest as well as the Grand Prize holder, will take place on February 8-12, 2021. The names of the winners will be announced on March 11, 2021, which will be the one-year anniversary of the announcement of the coronavirus pandemic by the World Health Organization.

All in all, about 4,000 works were submitted to the competition. The geography of the participants covers more than 80 countries of the world. China, India, Malaysia, Russia, Italy, Turkey, and the US occupy the leading position in terms of the number of submitted applications.