FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Eight MOJO films have been nominated in Season Six of the Mobile Journalism Awards.
Category winners will be announced April 12, 2025 at the live awards show at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy.
Finalists films will also join the permanent collection of the best work from previous seasons.
Nominees are awarded a $500 prize voucher from the Smart Film School.
Congratulations to:
Beloved, hated tourist: Have we destroyed Mallorca?
By Sebastian Strandberg
Crisis reporting
Sweden
NO 16
By Nadeera Shehan Arumawadu
Crisis Reporting
Sri Lanka
A lifeline for Baltic cod
Calle Elfström
Documentary
Sweden
Ariane tried caving near Paris in France
Ariane Limozin
Documentary
France
My First Starling Murmuration
Ben McGrail
Mobile Journalism
United Kingdom
Greenland: Fishing among icebergs
Leonor Suárez
Rural Voices
Spain
Boggabilla teens find their voice in a shipping container turned recording studio
James Ellis Paras, Max Anthony Tillman
Rural Voices
Australia
The top films from this year’s competition will be screened in April at the NABshow in Las Vegas and the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy.
The April screenings events are organized with the Broadcast Education Association and the International Journalism Festival.
Winners will be announced, followed by a panel discussion with judges.
Prize sponsors include Blackmagic Design, IFAD (United Nations), and the Smart Film School.
The winner of the Rural Voices category wins $1,000 cash and travel to Perugia to accept the prize.
The annual competition attracts film story entries from mobile journalists reporting in more than 40 countries.
SEASON SIX JUDGES include Johanna Rüdiger, Michelle Porter, Aphrodite Salas, Rob Layton, Bart Weiss, Robert Stewart, and Naila Hamdy.
Additional screenings are also made by invitation at global journalism conferences and other events organized by U.S. Speaker Program.
PRIZES
Blackmagic Design is donating four DaVinci Resolve Speed Editors (which includes the DaVinci Resolve Studio) to the prize pool that will be awarded to the winners of the next #MojoAwards competition.
Each journalist who has a story selected as a finalist will also be awarded a $500 gift certificate from the Smart Film School.
Winning films will receive prizes donated by The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Smart Film School.
CALL FOR ENTRIES – SEASON SEVEN
OPENS SEPTEMBER 14, 2025
https://filmfreeway.com/MobileJournalismAwards
#MojoAwards categories:
- Mobile Journalism
- Crisis Reporting
- Documentary
- Rural Voices
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: February 14, 2026
https://filmfreeway.com/MobileJournalismAwards
SMALL CAMERAS, GLOBAL IMPACT
In addition, the best films from all seasons of the Mobile Journalism Awards are curated in a permanent collection at the Smart Film School.
This allows scholars from all walks of life to review the collective body of documentary film work and new entries from each year’s competition results.
MADE FOR STUDENTS, FACULTY, AND PROFESSIONALS
Students need not be intimidated to submit their work.
In fact, a female student from Mexico was awarded Best Documentary honors in season two.
CATEGORIES
Mobile Journalism
• An open call for feature stories, news reports, travel stories, and human-interest features that have been shot primarily with smartphones.
NOTE: Judges can make several awards from work entered into this category. It all depends upon the variety, originality and quality of the work sent in.
• Assets from other small mobile gear like portable mics, GoPros, Drones, 360° and Action Cams is allowed.
• English Subtitles (burned in) are mandatory for any non-English scenes.
• All aspect ratios are supported (Square, Horizontal, Vertical).
Documentary
• Non-fiction subject between 3 and 10 minutes in length on any topic. Must be accurately reported with integrity using journalism ethics. Creative approaches to editorial illustration and narrative exposition that push the frontier of the documentary genre forward are certainly welcome.
Crisis Reporting
Entries may consist of reports, documentaries, live shots, news packages, or human-interest features that have been shot primarily with smartphones.
• Stories can be filmed in any location (battlefield, border crossings, homes, in transit, or anywhere necessary to tell the story of the crisis).
• Assets from other small mobile gear like portable mics, GoPros, Drones, 360°, and Action Cams is allowed, but material that was clearly produced with the capabilities of larger cameras is ineligible.
• English Subtitles (burned in) are mandatory for any non-English scenes. All aspect ratios are supported (Square, Horizontal, Vertical).
Rural Voices
This award will go to the best story (shot on a mobile phone) highlighting rural issues or reporting on the challenges of daily life of people living in rural or remote areas of the world, whether focused on food security, the effects of climate change and challenges of farming, issues around connectivity, access to markets/transport etc., challenges of youth unemployment or other.
We are particularly interested in entries from people living in fragile environments and crisis areas. Entries from rural women, youth and people from indigenous communities are particularly welcome.