For nature, wildlife enthusiasts and photographers, it's their favourite time of the year. Presented by Dell this year, the Nature inFocus Festival – Asia's premier nature and wildlife festival, is back for its sixth edition and so is the excitement, as entries have been pouring in for the NiF Photography and NiF Film awards since it was announced. The NiF Festival this year will go on for three days, starting August 2. The venue this year, Chamara Vajra will witness a rush on August 2, 3 and 4 as thousands of nature and wildlife lovers, photography and film enthusiasts, and participants will pour in from across the country. To add to the already widespread excitement for the announcement of the winners of the annual NiF Photography Awards, this year Nature inFocus is also launching its inaugural Nature inFocus Film Awards, thus attracting a wider audience.
While the Nature inFocus Festival itself is a recognition of an environmentally conscious community that is fragmented and bringing them together, the Awards are a recognition of the photographers' and filmmakers’ ability in the creative space and their empathy for nature. Having received 9,800 images across six categories, the NiF Photography Awards contest is all set for a grand finale at the festival. This year the awards ceremony will also see prizes given out for the inaugural NiF Film Awards.
In addition to the Awards, this year, the Nature inFocus Festival will host a 120-image photography exhibition which will include the winning images and selected shortlisted images from the NiF Photography Awards.
There will also be an exclusive film showcase, screenings of the winning natural history and conservation films from the NiF Film Awards, where the respective filmmakers will present their films and talk about them.
The sixth edition of the three-day festival will see the presence of some powerful speakers from across the globe such as Environmental Historian Mahesh Rangarajan; Wildlife Filmmaker Rolf Steinmann; Wildlife Conservationist Vivek Menon; Scientist Aparajita Datta; Wildlife Biologist Ravi Chellam; Wildlife Photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee; Ecologist Harini Nagendra; Wildlife Photographer Anish Andheria; and Wildlife Filmmaker Joanna Van Gruisen among others.
NiF Photography Awards
The award categories are designed so as to churn out the various faces of nature and wildlife on one platform. Therefore, the winners will be chosen from each of the five categories namely, Animal Portraits, Animal Behaviour, Wildscape and Animals in Habitat, Conservation Issues and Creative Nature Photography. There will also be a 'Young Photographer Award' which will be awarded to young contestants (17 years and below).
From this year, along with the winner and runner-up, the NiF Photography Awards will also have second runner-up and special mention awards.
Category winners will be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and a guided safari tour to a national park of their choice (Kanha, Bandhavgarh, Ranthambore, Tadoba and Corbett only) courtesy of Nature Wanderers, while category runners-up will get a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 and second runners-up will get Rs. 10,000.
An additional cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and a trip to the Maasai Mara National Park in Kenya courtesy of Nature Wanderers await the ‘NiF Photographer of the Year.’ All winners and runners-up are also entitled to a certificate and a winner’s trophy.
Jury for Photography Awards
The winners this year will be chosen by a jury comprising wildlife filmmaker and photojournalist Sandesh Kadur, environmental photographer Arati Kumar Rao, renowned wildlife photographer Sudhir Shivaram, chief conservator of forests Vijay Mohan Raj and documentary filmmaker Jyothy Karat. The jury curator is Nature inFocus Co-founder, Kalyan Varma, a wildlife photographer, filmmaker and a naturalist.
NiF Co-Founders Rohit Varma and Kalyan Varma
NiF Film Awards
The NiF Film Awards is a three-category award with a section solely dedicated to wildlife footage that has been captured using a smartphone. Lined up for the contest are entries from both professional and emerging filmmakers. Both Professional and Emerging Talent categories have two sub-categories in Natural History and Conservation. Participants in the Emerging Talent category can tell a story of an animal, plant or habitat or can highlight a conservation issue in under 5 minutes. In the Professional category, the films can be of any length and can be submitted from anywhere in the world. The Emerging Talent category is only open to Indian participants. The Mobile Moments category is for edited or unedited video clip shots on a mobile phone that captures an incredible moment of animal behaviour.
The Emerging Talent and Professional category winners will each be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 50,000 and the Mobile Moment category winner will receive a cash prize of Rs. 10,000.
Jury for Film Awards
The winners this year will be chosen by a 7-member jury comprising Rita Banerji, Founder-Director at Dusty Foot Productions; Gautam Pandey, Director at Riverbank Studios; Akanksha Sood Singh, a Natural History Filmmaker; Raghu Chundawat, a Conservation Biologist; Joanna Van Gruisen, a Wildlife Filmmaker; and Manish Mundra, the Founder of Drishyam Films. The jury curator is Sara, a wildlife filmmaker and a member of the NiF Advisory Board.