The contest is divided into two categories, linear and interactive, with three nominations for each. In the linear category, The Home Front, with photography by Marcus Yam and produced by Nancy Donaldson, Catrin Einhorn and Meaghan Looram for the New York Times, tells the story of two boys in the US who are sent to live with relatives when their father, a single dad and US soldier, is deployed to Afghanistan.
Yam, Donaldson, Einhorn and Looram also worked for the New York Times on A Year at War, along with photographer Damon Winter and producers James Dao and Rob Harris, which is nominated in the interactive category. The film follows the year-long deployment of one US battalion in Afghanistan
The other finalists in the linear category are photographer Stefano De Luigi of VII Photo Agency for Blanco, the result of a four-year journey delving into the life of the visually impaired in 16 countries around the world, and producer Lei Wang for A Man in The Forest, about a forest ranger in China working to monitor and protect the Hainan Black-Crested Gibbon.
In the interactive category, finalists also include Powering a Nation, featuring photography by Mike Ehrlich, Jessey Dearing, Lauren Frohne and Elena Rue and produced by Laura Ruel, Chad Stevens and Don Wittekind from the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which examines energy use across different demographics in the US.
Prison Valley, with photography by Philippe Brault in collaboration with author and co-director David Dufresne and produced by Alexandre Brachet and Gregory Trowbridge for Arte, is also shortlisted in the interactive category for its exploration of the prison industry in Cañon City, Colorado in the US.
Experts from photojournalism and other disciplines were invited to make nominations in each category, with the list then whittled down to a shortlist of six by a jury chaired by US photojournalist and filmmaker Ed Kashi.
Other members of the jury include Claudine Boeglin, multimedia producer for the Thomson Reuters Foundation; Andrew DeVigal, multimedia editor at the New York Times; Kang Kyung-ran, anchor and CEO of Frontline News Service; and Gideon Mendel, a freelance photographer from South Africa.
Kashi said that he hoped that the new award would "show how this new form of visual storytelling is alive and growing".
"The entries represented a growing geographical scope of productions and a broad range of production techniques and narrative approaches, which indicate very positive trends for the future development of multimedia.
"We observed the inherent strengths and weaknesses of this medium, which is still in it's infancy."
The winners of the award will be announced during the World Press Photo Awards Ceremony on 7 May, with the winner of first place in each category taking home €5,000.
In January, Jodi Bieber was named winner of the World Press Photo of the Year Portrait Singles award for her image of Bibi Aisha, which appeared on the cover of the August edition of Time magazine.
Free daily newsletter
If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).
