The Xposure International Photography Festival has announced the participants who have been shortlisted for its fifth annual photography and short film awards. The Xposure 2020-2021 Awards, organised by the Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB), are divided into 10 categories, which span across different genres and formats. The winners of the 2020-21 awards will be announced during the fifth iteration of Xposure, which is will be held at Expo Centre Sharjah from February 10 to 13. The awards are divided into the following categories: travel, portrait, architecture, drone, junior, landscape, macro, photojournalism, short film and the Sharjah Government open category. <strong>Click through the gallery above to see examples of submissions to each category. </strong> "The act of making pictures can be thrilling, addictive, and undeniably fulfilling. The Xposure International Photography Festival celebrates this art through a unique competition that has grown into a globally coveted platform for both aspiring artists and established professionals to gain exposure, win prizes and have their work celebrated on a prestigious platform," says Tariq Saeed Allay, director of SGMB. "For the industry, on the other hand, the award is now a key medium for discovering contemporary photography talents practicing in a variety of key categories." The SGMB said in a statement that this year's awards attracted 25,384 submissions from 125 countries, the highest in its five-year history. Entries have come from six continents, with the breakdown of entries predominantly from Asia with 16,728 submissions, followed by 6,335 from Europe; 929 from Africa; 881 from North America; 301 from South America and 210 from Oceania. It also revealed that the highest number of submissions was for the travel category, with 6,012, followed by 4,451 portrait entries and 2,469 photojournalism entries. "The number of countries from where submissions are being received for the Xposure competition has been increasing over the years, and this edition has been an absolute stand out on this regard – not only has it recorded the highest number of submissions, the award has also attracted entries from 125 countries, signalling the entry of 15 new countries into this contest," Allay adds. "All these achievements speak volumes about Xposure’s strengthening stature among photography professionals worldwide. It is particularly a sign of the faith amateur photographers have in Xposure as a launchpad for their artistic excellence and talent without bias." One winner and one runner-up will be chosen in each category, as well as one overall winner, chosen across all 10 categories based on the highest score achieved. All shortlisted nominees will feature in the Xposure festival exhibition. <strong>Shortlisted names for the Xposure International Photography Festival's photography and short film awards in full: </strong> <strong>Travel</strong> <strong>category</strong>: F Dilek Uyar (Turkey); Chin Leong Teo (Singapore); Wei Fu (Thailand); Shenghua Yang (China): Mingqian Wang (China): Azim Khan Ronnie (Bangladesh); Aditya Vardhan (India) <strong>Portraiture category</strong>: Pranab Basak (India); Kevin Shi (USA); Ly Hoang Long (Vietnam); Asim Ijaz (Pakistan); Hossein Fardinfard (The Netherlands); Zay Yar Lin (Myanmar); Svetlin Yosifov (Bulgaria); Pingyao Song (China) <strong>Architecture</strong> <strong>category</strong>: Zameer Abdul Majeed (UAE); Gerdie Hutomo (Indonesia); Fatima Qader (Bahrain); Katherine Young (Great Britain); Anna Wacker (Germany); Mohammed Almusabi, (UAE); Alexandr Bormotin (Russia) <strong>Drone category</strong>: Mostafa Ajjawi (UAE); Albert Dros (The Netherlands); Sergey Farenyuk (Russia); Ahmad Abbasi (Iran); Mohammad Reza Masoumi (Iran); Phuoc Hoai Nguyen (Vietnam); Admin Khanh (Vietnam) <strong>Junior</strong> <strong>category</strong>: Abdullah Alraese; Ayush Krishnan; Faseeh Fawaz; Joel Josy; Ayush Krishnan; Abdulaziz Almansoori; Maitha Qassim, (all from the UAE) <strong>Landscape category</strong>: Sheng Liu (China); Pawel Zygmunt (Ireland); Zhengdong Kuai (China); Wong Choon Keat (Myanmar); Kevin Krautgartner (Germany); Callie Chee (Australia); Janne Kahila (Finland) <strong>Macro category</strong>: Andi Abdul Halil (Indonesia); Chin Leong Teo (Singapore); Pedro Luis Saiz (Spain); Riad Hamzi (Saudi Arabia); Alexander Tripolski (Germany); Petar Sabol (Hungary); Ajar Setiadi (Indonesia) <strong>Photojournalism category</strong>: Marina Serebryakova (Belarus); Alain Schroeder (Belgium); Mohammed Zaanoun (Palestine); Tariq Zaidi (Great Britain); Amit Moulick (India); Debarchan Chatterjee (India); Simon Moricz-Sabjan (Hungary) <strong>Short Film</strong> <strong>category</strong>: Marc Ressang (China); Zahra Kababian (Iran); Guido Gazzilli (Italy); Tripty Tamang Pakhrin (Nepal); Florian Ledoux (Norway); Marek Skrzecz (Poland); Issam Taachit (Algeria) <strong>Sharjah Government</strong> <strong>Open</strong> <strong>category</strong>: Mohamed Noufal; Abdullah Aref; Mohamed Hassan; Ahmed Al-Ali; Ahmed Almheiri; Fahmi Alshalili
