Underwater Photographer of the Year Award 

First prize at the Underwater Photographer of the Year was awarded to Itzik Yogev, in a ceremony that took place on 29.9.18.

Mrs. Hedva Almog, Deputy Mayor of Haifa, presented the award.

The ceremony was part of photographers Ken Kriefer and Greg Lecoeur's Diving into Cinema—Best Diving Films of 2018, Edited by David Pilosof (Pilo).

IDIVE, headed by David Pilo, organized the competition—held annually in Israel and overseas for 15 years—in cooperation with Haifa Arts Foundation, in celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the Düsseldorf-Haifa Connection.

The judicial panel included Roni Sofer—head of the judicial panel; a representative of Hadassah School of Photography in Haifa; YNET representative; artist and illustrator Shlomo Cohen, author of Megalodon; Pnina Blayer—Artistic Director, HIFF.

The program included:

Moderated screening of the best award-winning stills and videos from fifteen years of the competition.

An audience with Christian Petron, one of the leading underwater cinematographers of our generation, who filmed Luc Besson's The Big Blue, and photographed the wreck of the Titanic for Discovery. Petron presented some of his favorite films, and described the erection of the underwater lighting tower that illuminated the wreck of the Titanic.