MUMBAI: In order to celebrate the power of photography to be able to capture a moment frozen in time, National Geographic Channel in association with HTC brings the fourth edition of its photography contest Nat Geo Moment Awards, powered by Reliance 3G.

The competition this year will be judged by renowned photographer, filmmaker and conservationist Mike Pandey. As part of the association, National Geographic Channel will also contribute to the photographer?s NGO, Earth Matters foundation.

This year, Nat Geo Moment Awards entries will also be open for a people?s choice awards where the picture with the maximum votes will get a chance to win Reliance Tablets.

Interested participants can submit their entries, through a special Moment Awards application on Facebook in five categories namely Culture, People, Landscape, Wild and a brand new category, HTC candid shots.

NGC Network India, Fox International Channels VP marketing, communication Debarpita Banerjee said, "All of us have an innate desire to capture our favorite moments and share our view of the world with others. Through Moment Awards, we hope to encourage creativity and bring out the talent of a million amateur and aspiring photographers in the country. The contest is not about technical finesse but about a moment which can be very simple and touching."

HTC introduced the One Series of smartphones with amazing camera and authentic sound capabilities providing premium mobile experience. In its previous season, the contest received entries from both professional and amateur photographers.

HTC India country manager Faisal Siddiqui said, "A picture is worth thousand words. To endorse the saying HTC brings, One Series with amazing camera, that enables the Smartphone fanatics to capture the priceless memories. Feelings, expressions, joy all can be captured through HTC One series Smartphone that makes your experience a memorable one. In constant endeavor to promote excellence in photography we have proudly associated with National Geographic Channel for Nat Geo Moments Awards. The competition will provide national platform to the photography buffs to showcase their talent."

Nat Geo Moment Awards provides a platform to showcase the creativity of photography enthusiasts across the country. This year the contest will give the winner, the recently launched HTC One Smartphone and their dream holiday to South Africa to pursue their passion in one of the most picturesque countries of the world.

PANAJI: Doordarshan has, in principle, agreed to revive the slot for screening the films of the Indian Panorama though details have to be worked out.

This was conveyed to 42nd International Film Festival of India (IFFI) director Shankar Mohan, by Doordarshan director general Tripurari Sharan during his visit to Panaji.

Addressing a press meet here, Mohan stressed that this was an industry-driven festival and so the stress was on artistic merit and technology, and not market driven. 

Though he emphasised that filmmakers had come all over the country, both he and producer-director Vidhu Vinod Chopra admitted that only filmmakers who were invited and paid for agreed to come and few came on their own.

They were responding to a question on why film personalities failed to turn up despite the fact that the Festival was supported by the industry.

He said that the Festival was already touching its optimum with the infrastructure available, and would grow as the years go by.

Mohan defended the choice of films in the Competition, saying he would like the festival to come up to a level where it could attract world premieres. However, all foreign films shown at the Festival in all sections are Indian premieres.

He and IFFI Steering Committee Chairman Mike Pandey said in reply to a question that the Panorama films will be taken all over the country.

He refused to comment on the inauguration at Margao, saying this was a policy-level decision taken at the local level.

Pandey said the festival had reached a high level with 167 films from 65 countries, and a large number of films came on their own.

Chopra said the guest list showed some of the best names were in India and the Indian Panorama was very popular with foreign directors.