After looking through the projects, I found some very impressive photographers, videographers and multimedia producers that I hadn’t discovered before. I posted a few Twitter handles at the end of each project to help follow some of their latest work. A lot of these projects involved large teams and I couldn’t mention everyone. Let me know if there’s anyone that I missed and I’ll add them to the list.

The first five entries were nominated in the “Current News Coverage” category. According to the entry requirements, the judges were looking for “creative and innovative approaches to the practice, presentation and delivery of news & documentary programming.” Enjoy!

1) Behind the Veil

Globe and Mail – A six-part multimedia series that talks with women from all walks of life about their lives in one of the most dangerous cities in Afghanistan.

Reporting by Jessica Leeder and photography by Paula Lerner. The multimedia producer was Jayson Taylor (@jaysontaylor) with design and development by Chris Manza.

2) Flipped

New York Times – How private equity dealmakers can win while their companies lose. A link to the story is available here.

Produced by Amy O’Leary (@amyoleary), Jigar Mehta (@jigarmehta), Krishnan Vasudevan (@kvasudevan), Zach Wise (@zlwise), Tom Jackson and others.

3) Times of Crisis

Reuters – In-depth multimedia charting the year of global upheaval following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. See how lives everywhere have changed as a divergent world embarks on a new era of historic uncertainty.

Produced by MediaStorm’s Brian Storm (@BrianStorm), Alba Mora Roca (@albamoraroca), Bob Sacha (@bobsacha), Tim Klimowicz, Jacky Myint (@jmyint) and Jason Burfield (@jburfield). Also produced by Reuters VP of Pictures Ayperi Karabuda Ecer and Head of Visual Projects Jassim Ahmad (@JassimA). Reuters is on Twitter at @reuterspictures.

4) Disabled in Vietnam

San Jose Mercury News – Disabled students in Vietnam find hope in an IT Training Program.

Produced by LiPo Ching.

5) Surviving the Tsunami: Stories of Hope

Reuters, Red Cross and Media Storm – Combining imagery by Reuters photojournalists with eyewitness testimony and interactive graphics, Surviving the Tsunami reveals the strength of the human spirit in the face of catastrophe. These are stories of compassion and hope. The project marks the fifth anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami. Produced by MediaStorm’s Brian Storm (@BrianStorm), Eric Maierson (@gboy) and Tim Klimowicz. Also produced by Reuters VP of Pictures Ayperi Karabuda Ecer and Head of Visual Projects Jassim Ahmad (@JassimA). Reuters is on Twitter at @reuterspictures.

The next six projects were nominated in the documentary category. They’re all pretty awesome…

1) Alabama Homeboys

LA Times – For three years, L.A.’s Homeboy Industries, a nationally recognized gang intervention organization, has sent a select few of its members on an extraordinary pilgrimage to work with impoverished kids in Alabama Village, Prichard, Ala. Tucked away in the southwest corner of the state, the small community is rural, largely segregated, oppressed by violence and ignored by the surrounding community. Its young people have come to know their enclave as “Death Valley.”

The poverty of the children of Alabama Village is shocking — even for the Homeboys, who come from the tough inner-city streets of Los Angeles. But there is also much the Homeboys recognized; drug dealers, shootings, dead-end choices and the desperate situation of youth facing no way out.

It is in these children 2,000 miles away that the visitors from L.A.find their calling.

Produced by Katy Newton, Liz O Baylen, Sean Connelley, Mary Cooney and others. You can also follow @LATimesPhotos and @LATimesVideo on Twitter.

2) Driftless: Stories from Iowa

MediaStorm – The thriving Midwestern family farm is no longer, having been choked by industrialized agriculture and replanted with subdivisions. A shifting economy, combined with an old-fashioned lifestyle that doesn’t translate from generation to generation, is forever altering the landscape.

Carrying one camera and one lens, Danny Wilcox Frazier walks Iowa’s gravel roads, gets his feet wet in the milking barn, pulls up a stool in the small-town bar. Through black-and-white photographs, he makes a record of his own emotions as he travels through the state. What results is a complex portrait of a well-loved American landscape at a time of enormous cultural change.

Produced by Danny Wilcox Frazier, Brian Storm (@BrianStorm), Eric Maierson (@gboy), Taylor Gentry, Tim Klimowicz, Jessica Stuart (@jessstuart) and Tim Hussin (@timhussin).

3) Secret Life of Scientists

NOVA – Welcome to “The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers,” a web-only series that shows what happens when the lab coats come off. Meet intriguing scientists and engineers. Watch their videos. Ask them questions. Find out how their surprising secret lives fuel their work, and vice versa.

4) One in 8 Million

New York Times – New York is a city of characters. The Green Thumb, whose community garden in a Brooklyn housing project shows children that eggs don’t come from eggplant. The Dictaphone Doctor, last of a dying breed. The Jury Clerk, who says ‘Good morning’ 200 times a day, and means it. The Teenage Mother. The Singing Waitress. The Blind Wine-Taster. The Tabloid Photographer. The Iraq Veteran. The Walking Miracle.

Each week in 2009, The New York Times introduced such individuals in sound and images, inviting ordinary people to tell their extraordinary stories — their passions and problems, relationships and routines, vocations and obsessions.

Series produced by Sarah Kramer and Alexis Mainland (@lexinyt), photographs by Todd Heisler (@heislerphoto) and interactive development by Tom Jackson.

5) A Life Alone

Soul of Athens – Farmer, husband, father and now widower. For 63 years, Tom Rose and his wife, Mary, built a life together on his family farm on Canaanville Road. Then last year Mary passed away, leaving Rose to face the future alone, surrounded by a lifetime of memories. Impressive work by Maisie Crow.

6) Ted Kennedy: A Life in Politics

The Boston Globe – Affectionately called Ted or Teddy by voters and those closest to him, he was known to the public for a booming voice and occasionally boisterous — and some notoriously reckless — behavior.

If you haven’t had enough yet, here are a couple more posts that are worth checking out. Both are great blogs and filled with a lot of awesome projects!

Multimedia Shooter: 13 Projects Worth Watching
MediaStorm: (16 projects) Worth Watching