And the winner is… photo contest awards to be unveiled at Tbilisi gala on Friday

A gala awards event announcing the winners of the EUNEIGHBOURS EAST – FOTOFESTIWAL photo contest takes place on Friday 31 March 2023 at the Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum (TPMM) in Georgia. 

The photo contest, funded by the European Union, invited professional photographers from the six Eastern Partnership countries – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine – to enter a set of photographs around the theme of Family Connections.

From a total of more than 400 applications, the team of five top international judges have drawn up a shortlist of three photographers from each country. All 18 finalists have been invited to the Georgian capital Tbilisi, where six winners – one from each country – will be announced at the gala awards event on Friday, 31 March, taking home a prize of €1,000 each.

The gala awards event will be hosted by Pawel Herczynski, Ambassador of the European Union to Georgia, and Nestan Nizharadze, the co-founder of Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum, and attended by local personalities, and media, bloggers and influencers from across the region.

On Thursday, 30 March, the shortlisted photographers will also take part in a masterclass with the international judges of the competition.

Each shortlisted entry has a special page on the EU NEIGHBOURS EAST website, where you can view the selected photo stories. The 18 shortlisted photographers are:

Armenia

Nazik Armenakyan – My War (Fragmentary Experience)

Mane Hovhannisyan – Fabula

Hrant Khachatryan – New Born

Azerbaijan

Orkhan Azimov – Remote from Education

Aziz Karimov – Azerbaijan Implements Measures to Tackle the Coronavirus Outbreak

Ilkin Yagubov – Interlacement

Belarus

Pasha Kritchko – Belarusian connections

Veranika Maliauka – Memories of home

Tatsiana Tkachova – Motherland

Georgia

Natela Grigalashvili – The Final Days of Georgian Nomads

Ekaterine Kolesnikova – Morning Comes Too Soon

Tako Robakidze – Peacekeepers

Moldova

Maria Gutu – Homeland

Ramin Mazur – Left Bank

Katerina Shosheva – Sem’ya

Ukraine

Artem Humilevskyi – Roots

Olena Morozova – Granny

Marysia Myanovska – Oh, brother, where art thou?

The contest is organised by the EU NEIGHBOURS EAST programme, in partnership with Fotofestiwal. EU NEIGHBOURS EAST is an EU-funded regional communication programme that raises awareness of the European Union, its policies and support projects in its Eastern Neighbourhood. Fotofestiwal was established in 2001 as a collective of professionals working with photography, and has since grown into one of the most significant photographic festivals in Europe.