A new national awards competition has been created to recognize excellence in Canadian photojournalism. The News Photographers Association of Canada’s (NPAC) Pictures of the Year competition will reward the work of photojournalists from across Canada.

The first annual NPAC Pictures of the Year competition is the result of a merger between two regional competitions. The Eastern Canadian News Photographers Association (ECNPA) Pictures of the Year (POY) and Western Canadian News Photographers Association (WCNPA) POY competitions have been combined to create the new national awards, which will become the most prestigious awards ceremony in Canada for photojournalists. Read the rest of this entry »

If a film is made and no one sees it, does it make an impact? Submit your film to Media That Matters and be heard.

If you want to make an impact, this is the festival for you—Media That Matters will bring your social-issue short to audiences around the world! Sixteen winners get an international distribution deal—DVD, broadcast, web streaming and hundreds of community screenings. Plus many films get cash awards. Media That Matters launches in NYC with a premiere and awards ceremony (previous presenters have included Tim Robbins, Chuck D and David Cross). The shorts are distributed to educators with a Teacher’s Guide and integrated into activist campaigns all year long. Deadline: 12 January 2007. Visit the site for more information and entry form (no entry fee for students!).

In January of each year, the Horizon Interactive Awards receives hundreds of entries from all over the world. A panel of industry professionals, from diverse multi-media, graphic design and marketing backgrounds, review the entries to determine the work that is to be recognized. Entries are given either a Gold, Silver, Bronze, and in some cases honorable mention award distinctions. All Gold winners are eligible for the Best of Category and Best of Show award (the Horizon Interactive Awards highest honor).

The Horizon Interactive Awards is a prestigious international competition recognizing outstanding achievement among interactive media producers. The awards showcase the best web site design, cd-roms, dvds, video, kiosks, video games and other interactive media. New Categories this year: Blog, Government, Video - Documentary, Video Menu Design/Graphics, Video - Short Film, Video-Training. Deadline is 31 January 2007. See site for more details, past winners, and entry form.

Entries are now being invited for the 2006/7 Commonwealth Photographic Awards organized by the Commonwealth Press Union (CPU). The overall theme for the Awards this year is ‘Achievement’. This is an open competition for all Commonwealth residents. The photographs will be judged on the interpretation of the theme as well as technical quality.

The Awards offer a view of how people in the Commonwealth, with its mixture of races, creeds, cultures and ways of life, see themselves and others. In addition, there are two new categories: Read the rest of this entry »

Coca-Cola and Play Imaginative are calling for designers who can express their passion for design and for the Coca-Cola brand by way of their unique art styles. Using the trexi figure as a canvas (seen here, but without the paint), the challenge is to depict their own personal definition of happiness creatively, and show the world what their vision of “A Better Tomorrow” looks like.

15 of the best designs will be part of a brand new “A Better Tomorrow” trexi series alongside 10 of today’s most celebrated character designers such as Tokidoki, Colorblok, Cupco and Mad Barbarians. Work involves Adobe Illustrator (AI) format and a copy of the JPEG file. Contest runs until 15 Jan 2007: 15 winners will be picked by public voting to join 10 international designers in latest trexi series. Top prize is a cash prize of $10,000 USD. Visit the site for more information.

The polished, heavyweight ADC (Art Director’s Club) Cube is an enduring symbol of creative leadership and innovation. Winners take their place in the industry’s revered archive of the best work ever produced in advertising, graphic design, photography, illustration and interactive media. The ADC Annual Awards has kept pace with the changing nature of visual communications since its inception in 1920.The Hybrid category transcends traditional uses of media, and Playground was created to give great unproduced advertising work a chance at daylight. Strenuously and scrupulously judged, the not-for-profit ADC Annual Awards is one of the most venerable shows in the world. Professional Deadline: 10 January 2007; Student deadline: 31 January 2007. Visit the site for more details.

Biotechnology, nuclear power, toxic chemicals, electromagnetic radiation — each of these technological hazards has a universally recognized warning symbol associated with it. So why not nanotechnology — the world’s most powerful (and potentially dangerous) technology? The Canadian-based ETC (Action Group on Erosion Technology and Concentration) environmental pressure group believes that nanomaterials deserve their own universally recognized hazard symbol. For this reason, the ETC group announced an International Graphic Design Competition to create a NanoHazard sign.

Concerned citizens everywhere are invited to submit their designs for a universal Nanotechnology Hazard Symbol at: www.etcgroup.org/nanohazard. The winning entry will be submitted to international standard-setting bodies responsible for hazard characterisation, to international governmental organisations and to national governments as a proposed symbol for nanotechnology hazards. Deadline: 7 January 2007.

oThe Web Marketing Association announces the launched of its fifth annual Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards. The IAC Awards are the first and only industry-based advertising award competition dedicated exclusively to online advertising. The Competition Web site is located at www.iacaward.org and the deadline for entry is 31 January 2007.

“We created the IAC Awards to highlight the best in this unique advertising medium by industry, and also to help advertising professionals validate their efforts to clients and senior management,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association, Inc. “As spending for online advertising continues to explode, it is important to make sure the ads delivered to advertisers are up to the challenge.” Read the rest of this entry »

The 2007 Next Generation® prize will finance the development of a bright idea that focuses on ENERGY, its uses, reduction, consumption, efficiencies, and alternatives. Now in its fourth year, the Next Generation® design competition recognizes design innovation on all scales–from the efficient desk lamp to the innovative city neighborhood plan, and everything in between. The Next Generation Design Competition is open to any designer or architect in practice for ten years or less, as well as design students.

The $10,000 prize is intended to support designers whose entries reflect considerations of sustainability, distribution and manufacturing systems, economy, current technologies and materials, function, and provocative form and can speak to any one of the 6 sub-disciplines supported by the magazine—architecture, urban planning, landscape design, interior design, product design, graphic design. On your own or in teams we invite you to submit work on urban plans, buildings, interiors, products, landscapes or communications design. The winner will receive $10,000 to realize his or her idea, and will be featured in Metropolis magazine. Runners up will also receive full coverage to empower the next generation of design. All entries must be submitted by 5 January 2007 at 11:59 p.m. Visit the site for details.

The highly acclaimed Student Showcase of Films (SSOF) has become known as the most prestigious competition for Florida student filmmakers. The juried statewide competition recognizes outstanding high school and college students by presenting over $25,000 in cash awards, prizes and scholarships in four film categories: Feature/Short, Animation, PSA/Commercial and new this year, a Music Video competition. A special Grand Prize will also be awarded to the feature/short film judged as having a “Future on the Big Screen�. The competition also includes awarding a $5,000 Burt Reynolds scholarship to two Palm Beach County high school seniors, a screenwriting competition and a $1,000 poster competition open to middle and high school students.

Students are encouraged to submit their entries no later than Wednesday, 17 January 2007. For further assistance or questions please call 561.233.1000 or email Alex Marquez at amarquez AT pbfilm.com. Applications and other information available at the Palm Beach County Film and Television Commission site.