The 2024–2025 Nikon Film and Photo Contest just dropped its winners list — and this year, it’s all about inspiration. Marking its 40th edition, the contest continues to spotlight the raw power of human creativity through still images and moving stories. Based on the theme “Inspire,” it drew an incredible wave of submissions from over 180 countries and regions — proving that art, no matter where it’s born, speaks a universal language.
The contest featured four categories — Super-short Film, 5-Minute Film, Single Photo, and Photo Story — each one celebrating a different side of visual storytelling. Whether it was a heart-tugging mini film or a perfectly timed photograph that made you stop and breathe, the range of emotion on display was unreal.
Sarah Leen, Founder and Editor of Visual Thinking Collective and former Director of Photography at National Geographic, led this year’s judging panel. With separate juries for the film and photography sections, every submission was reviewed with deep artistic care and respect for originality.
Winning works aren’t just getting trophies — they’re getting seen. Nikon will showcase them across global exhibitions, including a major showing at Tokyo Square Garden during the T3 Photo Festival Tokyo 2025 (October 12–27). Each space will be designed around the contest’s central idea — “Inspire” — reminding audiences that true creativity starts with heart.
The Nikon Film and Photo Contest 2025 isn’t just about winning — it’s about celebrating imagination, emotion, and the spark that connects us all through images and stories.
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Single Photo Category
#1. Grand Prize: "Jonas" by Tiina Itkonen, Finland
"I photographed Jonas, an Inughuit boy, in Savissivik in North West Greenland. Savissivik is one of the most remote settlements in Greenland, over thousand kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. This far north the polar night lasts four months and midnight sun shines for four months as well."
#2. Excellence Award: "Kite Festival" by Andre Ferreira, Brazil
"In the twilight of a radiant day, three children gather at the Kite Festival in Paraíba do Sul, in the heart of Rio de Janeiro. The image captures their silhouettes playing and having fun."
#3. Excellence Award: "Hunter" by Farshid Ahmadpour, Islamic Republic of Iran
"Old man hunter looking for prey for home"
#4. Special Encouragement Award: "We See Angels" by Emmanuel Lucky, Nigeria
"Editorial portrait of friends made a few years back, we wanted to convey the story of brotherhood in the most unlikely of environments."
#5. Special Encouragement Award: "Evening passenger" by Stelios Tsagris, Greece
"… I travel on the city trains… I empty my gaze into the light of the wagons… I travel but I never leave…"
#6. Special Encouragement Award: "Mom’s scent" by Xianhui Fang, Chinese mainland
"On August 21, 2024, in Lubao Village, Licheng County, Shanxi Province, mothers were steaming yellow steamed buns. Children sat together playing with toys, their laughter mingling with the rising smoke and warmth of the kitchen fire — this is the taste of home."
Photo Story Category
#7. Grand Prize: "Farewell-able" by Lei Yang, Chinese mainland
"We sometimes say “leave” or “farewell” when moving, reflecting our ties to people and places. Before leaving China, I photographed my hometown to understand what, for me, is farewell-able."
#8. Excellence Award: "Nel mio sangue (In my blood)" by Nils Böddingmeier, Germany
"The life and dedication of sheppeards of Lunigiana"
#9. Excellence Award: "The Stage of Life" by Yi Liu, Chinese mainland
"Childbirth is one of the greatest and most painful challenges humans can endure. It shows the struggles mothers go through to bring new life to the world, and the pure joy that comes with it. The work includes pregnant women, details of delivery (natural delivery and caesarean section), midwifery, delivery, and postpartum, and photographs cover all those involved in the delivery. This stage is full of bitterness and bitterness, pain, joy, blood and tears, sweat, expectations, surprises, moving stories, and thrilling scenes."
#10. Special Encouragement Award: "Return from a journey" by Ximeng Tu, Chinese mainland
"This photo story is a journey of self-discovery, a revisiting of my growth through photography. I began visiting every corner of Chongqing — its mountains, waters, vegetation, and even the pebbles on its banks —trying to understand the relationships between people, the city, the rivers, and myself. Capturing Chongqing’s "rivers" through photography is a feeling of growing lost even as you approach and seek them."
#11. Special Encouragement Award: "Maasai Children of Malanja" by Kang-Chun Cheng, United States of America
"Maasai children from Malanga village located in Ngorongoro Conservation Area."
#12. Special Encouragement Award: "American Dreaming" by Jacek Gąsiorowski, Poland
"Empty beaches. Semi-oneiric, in a warm sunset. Old people and the slow disappearance of their presence. Dignified, happy, sentimental. A painless, happy and gentle recollection of their life."
#13. General Public Award: "I am Unstoppable!" by Liew Hong Hooi, Malaysia
"This spirit medium jumped through the blazing fire hoops as a demonstration of faith to inspire fellow devotees to follow suit as a form of ritual cleansing during the Nine Emperor Gods Festival."
Super-Short Film Category
#14. Grand Prize: "The Small Red, Big Blue" by Hamed Nobari, Islamic Republic of Iran
"Children love fish and the sea, so let’s respect nature for their sake…"
#15. Excellence Award: "A trace in the wind" by Soheil Masoumi, Islamic Republic of Iran
"The lonely old woman weaves her songs and lullabies layer by layer and turns them into a beautiful carpet."
#16. Excellence Award: "Shiuli – the one who still knows" by Anindya Sundar Basu, India
"Dawn climber, the Shiuli ascends. His hands speak what ancestors knew. While the village sleeps, sap flows. From tree to sweet gold, dignity rises with each climb."
#17. Special Encouragement Award: "Beautiful struggle" by Yutaka Maeomichi, Japan
"This film overlays the dynamic movements of tricking with the ephemeral beauty of flowers blooming amidst the cycle of nature. The fleeting brilliance shared by the momentary beauty in the execution of tricking techniques and the fragile life of flowers that endure harsh winters, take root, and bloom only briefly in spring before fading away is expressed through the medium of film."
#18. Special Encouragement Award: "Keep on going" by Deshan Zhang, Chinese mainland
"In the bitter winter of minus 40 degrees, the herdsman mounts his Mongolian horse. They sweep across the land like the wind. When spring returns to the earth, the horses leap into icy rivers, sending sprays of water into the sky. They gallop on, never stopping – Inspiring every soul that dares to dream, driving ever forward. On this ancient land, they carve a legend into time."
#19. Special Encouragement Award: "Desert Hours" by Tracey Taylor, Australia
"The Empty Quarter’s endless sands defy time. Wind carves its flow, light marks its stillness. This film unveils a desert vast and ancient, where time shifts with each gust across a boundless expanse."
5-Minute Film Category
#20. Grand Prize: "Finding Serenity" by Ademola Falomo, Nigeria
"Finding Serenity was born during COVID lockdown when Yimika’s poem (Yimika is a producer and music artist from Lagos, Nigeria) moved me deeply. Inspired, I teamed up with friends to bring it to life, exploring peace in chaos and beauty in uncertainty."
#21. Excellence Award: "Sweet Little Girl" by Lorenzo Morandi, Italy
"During a piano practice session, Kazuyo Kotaka talks about her relationship with the audience, not only during concerts but also in everyday life."
#22. Excellence Award: "Awaiting the Lightning Bolt" by Marco Russo, Italy
"Renato, an eccentric Renaissance inventor, dares the impossible: capturing a lightning bolt in a jar! Amid storms and ambition, he chases the power of nature and love."
#23. Special Encouragement Award: "Fluffy Ball" by Ning Qian, Chinese mainland
"Little blue pieces of fluff fall off from a fuzzy sweater. A girl cannot get rid of them, they’re spreading across her body like an epidemic. Metaphorical story from the age of Covid."
#24. Special Encouragement Award: "Whisper" by John Donica, Moldova
"A short conceptual/experimental film about a mother who lost her son. The red light is the only guide for her in her journey."
#25. Special Encouragement Award: "I Know Who I Am" by Tyler Hicks, United States of America
"This story follows a man’s attempt to reconnect upon finding himself lost – seeking guidance from nature and his human instincts."
