Siena International Photo Awards

The Siena International Photo Awards (SIPAContest) is a photography competition for professional, amateur and student photographers from around the world. It is judged by an international panel of experts that includes renowned photographers, editors and photography collectors. First presented in 2015, by their second year the awards and the associated Siena Awards Festival in Siena, Italy, were considered prestigious.
According to the organizers, SIPA (Siena International Photo Awards) is part of a broader project of the Siena Awards. It represents an effort to bring people together from all around the world who are passionate not only about photography, but global connection, cultural exchange and art as a catalyst for change.
Siena International Photo Awards was created by Luca Venturi as part of the mission of the Art Photo Travel Association, a non-profit organization based in Siena, Italy. The awards were first presented on 30 October 2015.
The awards ceremony takes place in Siena at the Teatro dei Rinnovati theatre. On the day of the ceremony, the Siena International Photographer of the Year and other award-winning images are announced. Following the awards ceremony, the "Imagine All the People Sharing All the World" photography exhibition honoring the winners opens its doors in Siena. A book featuring all prize-winning entries is published annually in two languages (Italian and English).
The winning images are selected by a professional jury (including photographers from National Geographic and the BBC) from among thousands of entries (2019: approximately 50,000, according to the SIPAContest team), received from all over the world.
The winners in each category will be awarded the Pangea Prize and will compete for the highest award as Photographer of the Year.
An exhibition of the winning and honorable mention images, named "Beyond The Lens," is located each year at the exhibition space of the former distillery "Lo Stellino." In 2019 the exhibition was entitled "Imagine all the people sharing all the world."
A book of winning entries and runners-up has been published each year since 2015.
The 2024 awards ceremony was celebrated at the Teatro dei Rinnovati on the 28th of September.
The 2023 awards ceremony was celebrated at the Teatro dei Rinnovati on the 30th of September.
The 2022 awards ceremony was celebrated at the Teatro dei Rinnovati on the 1st of October.
The 2021 awards were presented as a virtual event on 23 October.
The 2020 awards were presented as a virtual event on 25 October.
The 2019 awards ceremony was celebrated at the Teatro dei Rinnovati on 26 October.
The 2018 awards ceremony was celebrated at the Teatro dei Rozzi on 27 October.
The 2017 awards ceremony was celebrated at the Teatro dei Rozzi on 28 October.
The 2016 awards ceremony was celebrated at the Teatro dei Rozzi on 29 October. The competition for the 2016 awards began in December 2015.
Judges for the competition included Melissa Farlow of National Geographic. Greg Lecoeur's winning photograph was of gannets diving for sardine off the coast off South Africa. The same photograph won National Geographic's Photographer of the Year contest.
The 2015 awards ceremony was celebrated at the Teatro dei Rozzi on 30 October.