The Coimbra City Council is the new official partner of the PRIZE ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM – a prize dedicated to photojournalism and unique in the Iberian Peninsula.

Apart from the competition, the city council also co-organises the Photojournalism Festival which takes place in tandem from the 17th to the 21st of April in Coimbra.

Once again, the city of the Mondego River becomes a reference in the calendar of photojournalism internationally – not only for the presence of prominent personalities in the field of image and who compose the jury of the prize, but also for the thorough presentation of exhibitions, screenings, conferences, and workshops which are set to boost the city's cultural scene throughout the five days of the event.

The jury will stay in Coimbra in these five days to assess and select the contestants' photo reports. Highlighting the event, the public ceremony for the announcement and hand in of the awards will be held at the Saint Francis Convent on April 21.

Santiago Lyon – head of World Press Photo 2013 and current director of editorial contents at Adobe – will lead the jury in this ninth edition of the PRIZE ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM. Other members include: Sara Naomi Lewkowicz, a photojournalist from the U. S. A. and a two-time winner at the World Press Photo, she is widely renowned for her work on domestic violence and LGBTQ families; photojournalist Marco Longari, AFP's chief photographer for Africa; and Tanya Habjouqa, documentary photographer specialised in the Middle East and also an award winner at the World Press Photo.

The present edition – with registrations open between 1-31st of May at www.estacao-imagem.com – adds two other awards to the usual ones. The single working grant of prior years is now doubled with the Grant ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM 2018 COIMBRA and the continuation of the Grant ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM VIANA DO CASTELO.  Also, the launching of the Europe Prize sponsored by the Representation of the European Commission in Portugal.

One more novelty of the present edition is the opening of the competition to final-year students of photography taught courses who are now invited to join the normal lot of contestants of the ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM's prize - photojournalists from Portugal, Galicia and Portuguese-speaking African countries as well as foreigners residing in any of these territories.

Having the Coimbra City Council as the new official partner and co-organiser of the Photojournalism Festival, the municipality of Viana do Castelo formerly in that role will maintain its support to the Grant on Minho and to the North-West Peninsular Prize. Turismo Centro de Portugal, Casa da Imprensa, Lusa Agency, Joana Vasconcelos Foundation, Santander-Totta Bank, and the Representation of the European Commission in Portugal are also sponsors of the prize. The competition's entry rules are available at http://www.estacao-imagem.com/pt/premio/2018/regulamento.

From April 17th, Coimbra will host nine exhibitions showcasing the work of internationally renowned photojournalists in several parts of the city, as well as conferences, workshops, screenings of documentary films, slideshows, and also a market with publications on photography. The exhibitions can be visited until the end of May.

Dedicated to photojournalism, the PRIZE ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM is not only unique in its genre in the Iberian Peninsula but also one of the few worldwide specifically focused on photo documentary reports. The Prize's jury selects award winners from all the works submitted to the competition in its various categories: News; Everyday Life; Contemporary Issues; Environment; Portrait Series; and Sports. In addition, the Europe Prize which aims to explore the "Generation Erasmus, the Europe in us" and the North-West Peninsular Prize opened this year under the theme "The bridges that unite us". Au pair with the attribution of the working grants ESTAÇÃO IMAGEM 2018 COIMBRA and VIANA DO CASTELO as mentioned, the jury will also select the Photography of the Year.