Welcome to Pictures of the Year International. We invite you to share your work as we honor excellence in photojournalism.

We are honored to announce the 82nd annual Pictures of the Year International competition.

We are livestreaming the judging for this year's competition. We will livestream the judges' discussions. Go to www.poy.org for contest details and schedule.

We believe that by hosting a transparent, juried competition in which an expert panel of photographers and editors share their own humanity through honest discussion of journalistic work that POY builds public trust in journalism and the people who practice it.

What winners receive

$1,000 cash & 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
Visual Editor of the Year Angus McDougall Excellence in Editing

Angus McDougall Excellence in Editing Award:

Winning organization receives a sterling silver trophy for one year, a Tiffany crystal trophy for the presiding editor and tuition to the Missouri Photo Workshop.

Individual category winners:

1st— Engraved plaque
2nd, 3rd, Finalist & Award of Excellence — PDF Certificate award

How to enter

Pay the entry fee of US$50 at https://poy.org. On Jan. 6, the fee becomes US$60.
Receive a reference code in your receipt.
Enter the code at Picter and enter POY.

POY Entry Standards and Specifications

Entries must be created or published for the first time between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2024.

Picter automatically accepts pictures and stories created in 2023, but they are only eligible if they were published for the first time in 2024.

First-time publication is defined as being published by a 3rd party media organization in print or online. Personal web sites or social media accounts do not qualify.

15 submissions allowed per person

A maximum of 15 submissions can be entered in any combination of categories.
Individual categories may have separate limitations. You may enter up to 10 entries in the single image and picture story categories, 5 entries in online editing, documentary news and daily life categories and up to 7 entries in newspaper and magazine editing categories.

The definition of one submission:

One picture in a single-picture category.
One picture story (5-10 photographs).
One project (12-40 photographs) in a premiere category.
One portfolio in Angus McDougal Excellence in Editing, Photographer or Visual Editor of the Year

POY reviews the submissions in advance of judging. We often contact photographers for clarification. Once judging begins, judges may disqualify an entry if it does not meet the POY standards.

ENTRY TIP! The jury may judge an entry based on how well it meets the category definition. Consider your category decision carefully. Judges may not move an entry to a new category.

Photographs will be credited to individual photographers. Team credits for single images are not allowed.

A single photograph may be submitted only once among the single-picture categories.

A single photograph may be entered as a single image category and as part of a picture story, a portfolio as well as one premiere category such as Community Awareness Award or Environmental Vision Award.

A picture story equals 5–10 photos. Do not submit multiple versions of the same story.

File specifications

File naming

Your files are automatically renamed when you submit. It is not necessary to rename your files.

Photo specifications

File type: .JPG

Image Size: 3,000 pixels minimum on the longer side.

Resolution: 300 dpi, minimum.

Video and web site entries

Submit a .jpg thumbnail image and an active URL for each video and online entry.

Do not upload video files.

Include required usernames and passwords.

Required IPTC fields:

Embed metadata into the images. The information automatically populates Picter’s fields.

Document Title is the image title
Author is the photographer's name
Description is the caption
Location Information include city (or nearest city), state/province, country
Capture Date verify the date. Images outside eligible dates range may be rejected.

Picture story sequence

The sequence of images you create will be preserved. You can change the sequence after you upload the images. POY cannot change the sequence of your images.

For the portfolio categories #30, #31 and #32, create a title slide (white text, black background). Put the title and story summary in the IPTC title and caption fields. Place the slide at the beginning of each story.

Print editing entries

We cannot accept .pdf files. Please convert them to .jpg files. This is a 1-click process in Adobe Bridge: File-Export to-Save as jpgs.

Please submit each page as a separate .jpg file. A double truck (two facing pages) should be submitted as a single .jpg file.

POY Ethics

Entries should be accurate representations of a news scene or candid moment.

Do not set up or stage photographs. Only portraits may be posed.

POY does not accept AI-generated or manipulated images in any category. Do not add or remove content from your images.

POY follows the National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics. All captions and story summaries should meet journalistic standards for accuracy and publication requirements. Link to code of ethics: https://nppa.org/code-ethics

ENTRY TIP! Judges often find images made through legitimate creative techniques intriguing. Be transparent in your creative process. Including a description of your technique in the caption field can increase the appreciation of your effort.

POY is open to amateur and professional photographers. Entrants may be independent or affiliated with media organizations such as newspapers, magazines, photo agencies, media companies, NGOs, or specialty advocacy organizations.

POY does 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.

Business promotions, catalogs, branded content or stories in which the funding organization is also the primary subject are not allowed. You may not submit entries that feature your employer. For example, a team photographer cannot enter images of the team that employs them.

POY does not accept images and stories from government agencies or state-sponsored media that do not practice editorial independence.

**ENTRY TIP!**Heavily edited images can repel judges. 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 accepts two photographic modes: color and black & white. Black & white images should be bi-tonal and display a full grayscale range of 256 intensities from black to white. Black & white image files that artificially impose a color shift, such as sepia or cyan tones, may be disqualified.

Entries must not be digitally manipulated or altered through post-production processing. Routine post-production processing for exposure correction, white balance and color toning is acceptable. Adding, altering, or removing elements is not permitted. Excessive saturation or desaturation is not allowed.

Smartphone images are allowed. However, filters that apply excessive tonal aberrations, textures, vignettes, or other manipulations are not allowed.

Diptychs and triptychs are not allowed. Digitally manufactured photo illustrations, masks, borders, backgrounds, text, handwritten notes, or other effects are prohibited.

Film edges are allowed if the original photograph was shot on Polaroid or film (negative or transparency) and the border is the true nature of the medium.

POY may request the original RAW or JPG image files, plus any images that the jury request. Any photograph that does not meet POY standards may be disqualified.

Caption Criteria

Each photograph must include a caption that meets journalistic standards for accuracy and be ready for publication. Captions that are inaccurate or falsely represent the picture content may be disqualified.

ENTRY TIP! Each caption should include a date, even if the specific date is unknown. For example, "The photo was taken on Feb. 4, 2024," or "The photo was taken in February 2024."

Do not include your name or organization in the caption.

IPTC data can be embedded into images using programs such as Photo Mechanic, Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or Bridge. The description fields will populate automatically.

Please submit all captions in English.

ENTRY TIP! Captions are read in the final rounds of each category. Well-written captions with relevant details strengthen your entry. Short, concise captions are often more effective than long captions. The focus of POY is on the storytelling ability of the images, which means that not all captions are read, or read in their entirety.

Portfolio Criteria

ENTRY TIP! The title slide provides important context. Keep the title short!

Picture stories in portfolios are not limited to 10 images.

All photographs should include a caption. Use the individual captions to expand on story details.

Single images may not be repeated in a picture story in the same portfolio.

ENTRY TIP! Picture story entries should have a clearly defined structure. Each image should contribute unique information. In the final rounds, judges often focus on the quality of the edit. Eliminate weak and redundant images.

Editing Criteria

The editing categories recognize excellence in the presentation of visual journalism in print and online formats. Design should reflect the effectiveness of how all the story elements contribute to visual storytelling and respect for the vision of the photographer. The criteria may consider how the photojournalistic aspects of a story are supported by the design, display typography, captions, graphics, animation and interactive elements.

ENTRY TIP! Editors are encouraged to use the description field to describe their role in reporting and presentation of the entry.

Documentary Criteria

The term “documentary” is defined as a non-fiction, video narrative, relying on visual reporting of real situations or events involving real people. The entry should follow the concepts of observational and direct cinema techniques, adhering to strict journalistic ethics.

The documentary categories appraise storytelling and how the editing decisions and elements of the film such support observational reporting. The goal is to “show” the story. News judgement, visual aesthetics, audio and overall narrative structure are part of the judging criteria.

Documentaries must be published or shared publicly via broadcast or festivals during 2024. An entry may include content from previous years, but documentaries entered in previous years are not allowed.

Entries should be presented in a web-based linear format so that the viewer clicks "play” and the story runs from start to finish. Not allowed are fictional stories, staged reenactments, docudramas, or television news reports where an anchor person tells the story.

Do not upload video files. Submit a .jpg thumbnail and an active URL link. If a password access is required, please include a password and username.

Video files from all winning entries will be provided to POY.

About POY

POY is a program of the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia, Missouri. It is part of the POY family which includes College Photographer of the Year, POY Latin America and POY Asia.

The mission of POY is to build public trust in photojournalism, honor excellence in its practice, come together as an inclusive community and create inspiring educational opportunities by preserving a compelling visual record of history. Not only is it critical for people to see the news and issues that shape our world, but it is also necessary to preserve access to these eye-witness accounts.

For more than 80 years, POY has connected students and the public to the journalistic work allows people to interpret the news and historic events through an empathetic lens. For those who work directly with POY, it can be a transformative experience. In all our efforts we hold to the guiding principle set forth by POY founder Cliff Edom, “Show truth with a camera.”