How are entries judged?
Entries are initially judged by a three-person jury. Exceptions to this are the photographic awards, which will have a five-person jury, and the non-fiction book award which will have a three-person panel presided over by the Walkley Advisory Board Chair. The jury will recommend the best three entrants to the Walkley Advisory Board. The Board will then select the best entrant in each category together with the Journalism leadership award and the Gold Walkley.
• Each entry in the five main categories (excluding “Photographers’ Choice”) will be marked with the appropriate photographer’s ID number. Names will not be marked on the entries to ensure fairness and unbiased consideration. • Every entry will go through a pre-judging round through a projection system to determine if the entry qualifies for the “final round” of judging. Entries will be pre-judged by a panel of at least three judges for these qualities: 1) appropriate for category; 2) proper exposure of image; and 3) an “in focus” image (or determination if blur was intentional, as in “artistic blur”). Numeric scores will not be given during this pre-judging phase of the competition; rather, a determination of whether an entry will advance to the “final round” will be made. • During the “final round” of judging, a panel of five judges (and up to two additional tie-breaking judges if necessary) will work to evaluate and grade each entry independently, based on its own merits. Each judge
Entries are judged against a high standard of excellence and do not compete directly with each other so Winners are decided on their own merits rather than by direct comparison to others. Our specialized competition allows you to indicate what role you played in producing the entry so that the judges can focus their attention especially on your work. Our unique scoring system automatically adjusts the importance of each of the ten criteria based on the selected category and what role you played in producing the entry.
