The 2025 Spotlight Awards has announced its 15 category winners, recognizing outstanding achievement in commercial photography and celebrating the industry's most talented practitioners. UK-based photographer Todd Antony took home the Grand Prize for his exceptional work in the Sport category, capturing the ancient Central Asian game of Buzkashi in Tajikistan.

Antony's award-winning photographs document Buzkashi, also known as goat-pulling, a centuries-old sport that bears some resemblance to polo but involves far more intense and chaotic gameplay. Unlike the refined image of English polo played on pristine fields, Buzkashi requires players called chapandaz to grip a headless goat carcass while attempting to carry it across a designated line. The fierce competition creates dramatic scenes as riders battle for control, with matches often spilling into spectator areas and lasting for hours until one participant successfully drags the goat across the dirt goal line.

"Once a nomadic pastime, it remains a dramatic highlight of festivals and weddings today," Antony explained about the traditional sport that provided the subject matter for his winning photographs.

The competition featured winners from around the globe across diverse categories of commercial photography. Jeremy Baile from the United Kingdom claimed the Food and Drink category, while Victor Boccard from France won the Emerging Talent award. Si Cox from the UK took the Kids category, and Alex Wallace from New Zealand secured the Corporate and Industrial prize.

American photographers also made their mark in the competition, with Sven-Anton winning Still Life and Delaney McQuown taking the Advertising category. Other notable winners included Connor Langford from the UK in Travel, Documentary, and Landscape; Dámaso Avila from Spain in Architecture and Interiors; and Dan Hack from the UK in People and Lifestyle.

German photographers dominated several categories, with Stefan Groepper winning Fashion, Bam claiming the Cars category, and Leo Rohrsetzer taking Beauty. The international field was rounded out by Vilka (Somm_Bird) from Australia, who won the AI Image Developing and Creating category, and Hanna Kantor from Poland, who secured the Portraiture and Celebrity award.

Now in its eighth year, the Spotlight Awards maintains its unique focus on advertising photography, distinguishing itself from other photography competitions by targeting specifically commercial work. The event is organized by Production Paradise and features an impressive judging panel of more than 50 industry experts and potential clients who represent the commercial photography market.

According to the competition organizers, the judging panel includes some of the top creative professionals from the world's most influential brands, advertising agencies, and magazines. These industry leaders dedicated their time to reviewing thousands of entries to identify the best talent showcased in the Spotlight Awards, ensuring that winners represent the highest standards of commercial photography excellence.

The comprehensive nature of the competition's categories reflects the diverse landscape of modern commercial photography, spanning everything from traditional advertising and fashion work to emerging fields like AI-generated imagery. This breadth demonstrates how the industry continues to evolve while maintaining core principles of visual storytelling and commercial appeal.