In the pictures of the 63rd edition World Press Photo finalists - the most prestigious photojournalism contest in the world - there is the whole history of 2019 told by faces, gestures and atmospheres. The winners will be announced during an awards ceremony in Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, on April 16, 2020. Speaking of numbers, 73996 photographs were examined by the jury, shot by 4283 photographers from 125 different countries.
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Organized since 1955, by the homonymous non-profit organization based in Amsterdam, the World Press Photo is assigned to an image which not only can represents a photojournalistic summary of the year, but also capable in reflecting the major problems, situations or relevant events of journalistic importance, in a way that could demonstrates an exceptional level both of visual perception and creativity.
The six finalists of the World Press Photo of The Year 2020 are Associated Press's Mulugeta Ayene, with the portrait of a woman against the backdrop of the crash of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing, which took place on 10 March 2019 in Ethiopia; Farouk Batiche by Deutsche Presse-Agentur, with a photograph of the clashes between demonstrators and police, in Algiers; Yasuyoshi Chiba of Agence France-Presse, which collects a snapshot of the protests against the military dictatorship in Sudan; Tomek Kaczor for the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, with the foreground of a 15-year-old girl, recently awakened by the catatonic state caused by the resignation syndrome, in a reception center for refugees; Ivor Prickett of the New York Times, with the touching image of a seriously injured Kurdish fighter who receives a visit from his fiancée, in a hospital; the Russian Nikita Teryoshin, with a photograph taken during IDEX, the arms fair held in Abu Dhabi, and showing a businessman with an anti-tank grenade launcher.
Since the last edition, in addition to the World Press Photo of The Year, the World Press Photo Story of the Year 2020 has also been awarded to the photographer, whose visual creativity and ability has produced a story with excellent editing and photographic sequences, on a great event or a matter of journalistic relevance in 2019. The finalists for the World Press Photo Story of the Year are Nicolas Asfouri of the AFP agency, with a project on the Hong Kong protests; Ayene again, for a broader work on the relatives of the victims aboard the Boeing crashed in Ethiopia and the Frenchman Romain Laurendeau for a report on the activism of young Algerians.