Sister City Photography Competition

2025 Darwin Sister City Award – Storytelling Competition

The Darwin Sister City Award – Storytelling Photography Competition celebrates everything you love about photography, poem and short film.  

Hosted by City of Darwin, Australia, the Darwin Sister City Award – Storytelling Photography Competition (the Competition) is open to amateur and professional photographers/Poet/film producer from Darwin and its seven sister cities and offers cash prizes and a Mayoral Certificate.  

Storytelling is the heart of the Competition, which aims to feature images created by entrants from our sister cities, sharing visions that inspire, inform, and awe. 

It is a competition for the best photo, English poem and very short film/video byte (1-2mins) from Darwin and Sister Cities to be featured on the website and shared through the Darwin and seven Sister Cities. Three categories are open for applications, including photography, English poem and very short film.  

Eligibility

  • The Competition is open to all professional and amateur entrants who are above 18 years old. 

  • This free-to-enter competition is for persons residing within Darwin and any person living in Darwin’s seven sister cities, including Ambon, Indonesia, Kalymnos, Greece, Dili, Timor Leste, Haikou, China, Denpasar, Indonesia, Anchorage, USA, and Milikapiti, Tiwi Island, Northern Territory, Australia. 

  • Each entrant can only enter one submission via this competition, for example if you submit one photo under the People theme for the photography category, you are not allowed to make the second submission for either Landscape of the photography category, or poem or short film.  

  • City of Darwin staff, elected members, and their immediate families are not eligible to enter the competition.

Submission Guidelines

  • All submission must be original work, owned by the entrants. 

  • The submission must not infringe upon the trademark, copyright, moral rights, intellectual rights, or rights of privacy of any entity or person. 

  • The submission must be in its original state and cannot be altered in any way, including but not limited to removing, adding, reversing, or distorting subjects within the frame. Violators will be removed from the Competition and stripped of any prize(s). 

  • All details provided by the entrant must be true and accurate. 

  • The entrant is responsible for the appropriate permissions or talent releases for their entries. City of Darwin does not request talent release forms with entries. If any dispute arises from the submission that you have submitted, City of Darwin team will remove the submission and disqualify the entries. 

  • Submission with watermarks or branding will be disqualified. 

  • Entries that are found to breach these Terms and Conditions will become invalid and, if awarded a prize, that prize must be returned to City of Darwin. 

  • City of Darwin reserves the right in its sole discretion to disqualify any entry that is deemed inappropriate or does not conform to stated competition rules. 

  • Please read these Terms and Conditions carefully before participating in the Darwin Sister City Award – Storytelling Competition. Entrant is deemed to agree the Terms of Conditions by participating in this Competition.  

  • City of Darwin reserves the right to modify these Terms and Conditions at any time. 

Prizes

Entry Period

  • 8:00 am Monday 2 December 2024 – 11:59 pm Monday 17 March 2025.

  • All dates and times are in Australian Central Standard Time, ACST. 

Photography category

Entry requirements 

  • Two themes are open for entry, including City Landscape and People.  City Landscape which can include an image of the landscape of your city with a maximum 150 words story why this place is iconic for your city. People theme is for one image of people entry with a maximum of 150 words story sharing the visions that inspire, inform, and awe.​​​​​​ 

  • Each individual can submit one image with a story. 

  • Both Adobe RGB and sRGB are accepted. 

  • Any equipment may be used. Entries must meet the technical specifications as follows: 

    • must be larger than 2MB. 

    • both Adobe RGB and sRGB are accepted. 

    • images must be saved as a high-resolution JPEG. 

  • Submissions will not be accepted once the deadline has passed 

 

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Poem Category

Entry requirements

  • The theme of the poem competition is “Sister City”.  

  • All poems must have a title and must not exceed 30 lines in length (excluding title).  

  • Poems must be written in English. 

  • Poems must be the entrant’s original work. AI-generated work is prohibited. 

  • All entries are judged anonymously, and the poet’s name must not appear on the poem itself. 

  • Entries must not have been published, self-published, published on a website or made public on social media, broadcast or featured among the winners in another competition before 1 December 2025. 

 

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Short film category

Entry requirements

  • The theme of the very short film competition is “Sister City”. 

  • Films must be between 2-5 minutes in duration or video bytes for 1-2mins. 

  • One film entry per person (or group) will be accepted. 

  • Films must be submitted in English or with English subtitles. 

  • Films must not have been publicly screened, broadcast, or featured online or among the winners in another competition before 1 December 2025. 

  • Submit as .mp4 or .mov (QT).   

  • Recommended film specs: Format H264, either as an .mp4 or .mov (QT); 1280×720 px; 25fps; Stereo AAC. Aspect ratio for film i.e. 16:9 (1280×720 px). Max file size 2GB. 

  • Grant the non-exclusive rights to City of Darwin to screen their films on the website and its social media platforms with no charge to City of Darwin, including but not limited to LinkedIn. 

  • Grant the non-exclusive rights to City of Darwin to include clips of their films in a promotional trailer and comms to promote the competition, with chosen clips to be approved by the filmmakers before release of the trailer. 

  • City of Darwin does not accept film via email. Submitted films must be supplied as a password-protected Vimeo link or unlisted YouTube link or other video platform link entered directly into the film submission online application form.  

  • If the password changes at any point between the submission and the Competition, the Submitter must inform City of Darwin via email international@darwin.nt.gov.au as soon as possible. Any film that is submitted with an incorrect or outdated password cannot be considered for the Competition; in such a case, the submission will be disqualified. 

 

ENTER

 

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