2024 Way Up North Awards

Since 2017, the Way Up North Awards have recognized exceptional talent within the wedding community. Our goal is to formally celebrate the very best in wedding photography and videography, both across Europe and globally. The Awards are divided into two types: Contests and Individual Awards. The Contests are open to worldwide submissions, culminating in a top ten list of winners. The Individual Awards, however, are exclusively for European creatives and involve a two-step process: first, nominees are submitted, then they’re invited to participate. Both Contests and Individual Awards are judged by wedding creatives provided by our sponsor, Imagen. Adding to the excitement, all winners are announced live at Way Up North in Berlin, creating a high-energy, unforgettable moment for everyone in the theatre.

Sponsored by
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Global Competition

Submission Contests

The 2024 Contests offer 15 categories, open globally. Primarily focused on wedding photography, but also includes video, analogue, and AI entries.
Europe’s Best of 2024

Individual Awards

Three Individual Awards are focused on our European community: Best Photographer, Best Young Photographer, and Best Filmmaker. Step one is nomination, followed by an invitation to participate.
Judging and Jury

Evaluating Your Entries

With the help of Imagen and Canon, eight expert judges will review all entries. Find out more about the team evaluating the 2024 WUN Awards.

the contests

The Contest portion of the Way Up North Awards is open globally — anyone, from anywhere, can enter. There’s no cap on the number of submissions you can make, and all entries will be reviewed by Imagen ambassadors. Each contest will have ten winners, with the exception of Story of the Year and Film of the Year, which will narrow down to three finalists and one top prize winner. All Contest winners will be announced live in Berlin. Submissions close on January 15th, 2025. Good luck!

Contest Overview

Best Flash Photo

Create your light magic! Whether you’re working with a single speed-light or orchestrating multiple off-camera flashes, this category celebrates creative artificial lighting. From subtle fill to dramatic night portraits, show us your illumination innovation!
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Group Photo

Some wedding photographers cringe at family formals. Others embrace them. Whether it’s a grip and grin family portrait or a spontaneously constructed group photo with the bridal party, there’s something magical about capturing the couple surrounded by their loved ones. Show us your best celebration of all things groups!
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Solo Portrait

One person, one frame, infinite possibilities! This category celebrates the individual on their wedding day, whether candidly captured or artfully posed. Show us your best solo portrait of either wedding partner.
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Couple Portrait

The timeless classic! While trends evolve, the essence of capturing two people in love on their wedding day remains eternal. This category celebrates portraits that will resonate just as powerfully 50 years from now as they do today.
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Epic Portrait

Those jaw-dropping photos that stop scrolling in its tracks – that’s what we’re looking for! Place a couple in the midst of nature’s grandeur or architectural magnificence on their wedding day, and you’ve got an Epic Portrait entry!
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Dance Photo

What does celebration through dance look like in your part of the world? Show us through your lens in the Dance photo category! First dance with fireworks, uncles feeling courageous doing the Macarena, toddlers two-stepping, or whatever else happens on the dance-floor in your part of the world. Dancing transcends boundaries, and we welcome your best wedding dance photos wherever you come from!
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Wedding Moment

Are you a moment junkie? A master of catching the unexpected? Are you seeing the unseen? This category celebrates those split-second moments. The happy accidents, the emotional turbulence, the near (or full-on) disasters. Show us your most extraordinary candid moment of 2024!
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Family Photo

Family photos are inherently built into the DNA of a wedding photographer, so why not put that on full display. Showcase your best family-focused photos from any context—wedding, family session, or otherwise—and let your family-flag wave loud and proud!
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Non-Wedding Wedding Photo

We know you’re an ambitious bunch, and wedding inspiration doesn’t always happen on a wedding day in our world. Hence, we go “Beyond the Ceremony.” This category is crafted for extraordinary wedding-inspired photos created outside of a wedding day. Open to submissions from day-after sessions, styled shoots, workshops, or any setting outside the typical wedding environment, it’s an opportunity to unleash your creativity and showcase the magic that unfolds when wedding photography ventures beyond the bounds of the wedding day.
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best AI Concept

Dreaming beyond the limits of reality! This category embraces the art of AI-generated wedding imagery. Show us how you’re using text prompts and creative vision to imagine wedding images that exist purely in the digital realm. From surreal settings to impossible perspectives, this category pushes the boundaries of what wedding imagery can be.We’re looking for pure imagination and inspirational vision – show us wedding concepts that could only exist through AI generation, whether they’re beautifully surreal or elegantly impossible. Because who knows – maybe one day your dreams could inspire reality.
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Maternity Photo

Celebrating new life! This category honours those brave photographers who have the courage to photograph one of life’s most vulnerable moments. Maternity photos range from creative to intimate, adventurous to raw. This category is a celebration of all forms that maternity photos take, and is an ode to motherhood.
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Wedding Vibe

This contest is a collective effort between the photographer, the wedding couple, and whoever put it altogether to create just the right vibe. A photo that exemplifies what it felt like to be in the moment at the specific place on the day of the wedding. The type of photo you look at and can almost smell the atmosphere, feel the beats, or hear the sounds of the guests – that’s the vibe this category is after.
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Best Analogue Wedding Photo

In an age of instant digital gratification, this category pays homage to the thoughtful craft of film photography. Show us your finest wedding photo captured on analogue medium, celebrating the timeless qualities and intentional approach that film demands.
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€6 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Photographs must have be taken in 2024.
Contest Overview

Story of The Year

Celebration of stories! While single images can be powerful, a sequence of images weaves a complete narrative. The Story category invites you to showcase a wedding day journey through 25 carefully curated photos when compiled together create a compelling story!
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€15 per Story
Unlimited Entries
Entry must have be photographed in 2024.
Contest Overview

Film of the Year

Celebrating cinematic excellence in wedding storytelling! Submit your wedding films of 8 minutes or less and show us how you capture love in motion.
Submissions Open
December 1st (00:001 CET) 2024
Submissions Close
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025
Submissions Details
€25 per Entry
Unlimited Entries
Video must have be created in 2024.

The Individual Awards

Since we launched the Way Up North Awards in 2017, these three individual categories have celebrated Europe’s best wedding talent. The process is simple: it all starts with a nomination. Whether they get a single nomination or thousands, every nominee is invited to enter and submit their work. From there, the contest narrows to three finalists and, ultimately, one winner in each category. These awards are exclusively for European creatives, so check out the categories below and nominate your favorite wedding talent from 2024!

Europe’s Best Wedding Photographer

Who’s the wedding photographer that really stood out in Europe this year? Now’s your chance to nominate who you think deserves the title of Europe’s Best Wedding Photographer 2024! By nominating, you’ll put them in the running for the contest. Nominations close January 15th, with invites going out on January 16th, and judging begins February 1st. Let’s see who rises to the top!
Nomination Deadline
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025

Europe’s Best Young Wedding Photographer

Got an eye on a talented photographer under 25 who’s making waves in weddings? Nominate them for Europe’s Best Young Wedding Photographer! Your nomination is their ticket to enter. Nominations close January 15th, invites follow on January 16th, and judging kicks off February 1st. This is their moment to shine!
Nomination Deadline
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025

Europe’s Best Wedding Filmmaker

Which wedding filmmaker has really made an impact this year? Nominate them for Europe’s Best Wedding Filmmaker 2024 and help get them in the mix. Nominations close on January 15th, invitations go out January 16th, and judging starts February 1st. Let the best filmmaker win!
Nomination Deadline
January 15th (23:59 CET) 2025

Photography Judges

Our 2024 WUN Award photography judges come from near and far. Among them are past WUN Award winners as well as new faces who’ve just discovered the Awards. What unites them is a shared excellence in their craft and a diverse range of styles. They’ll bring their unique perspectives to evaluating your entries, and they share one more connection: they’re all Imagen ambassadors. We’re grateful to Imagen not only for sponsoring the contests but for bringing together this exceptional panel to rank your work.

Catharine Sant’Ana, Brazil

Catharine Sant’Ana has been a photographer for 12 years and is known by her sensible and authentic approach to LGBTQIAPN+ couples. With a recognised trajectory, on Alma Afetiva – her authorship project (which would translate to Sentimental Soul in English), she transforms each shoot into a singular experience, valuing the unique stories of each couple and showing that for her, photography is an act of visibility, art and celebration of love in its many forms.

Instagram, Website

Ana Gregoric, Slovenia

Ana Gregorič is a world renowned photographer who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana. Her work has been published in several magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Elle and Grazia. As a photographer, she describes herself as “in constant search for the perfect light. I like being carried away by all the stories we encounter and I love sharing them through photography.

Instagram, Website

Inta Lankovska, Latvia

Inta Lankovska is a multi-award-winning wedding photographer and the president of the Latvian Wedding Photographers and Videographers Association. With 15 years of industry experience, a photography degree from London, and contemporary art courses from the ISSP School in Riga, education plays a key role in her practice. Inta runs wedding photography masterclasses and mentoring sessions, and she defines her photography style as optimistic realism – creative yet believable.

Instagram, Website

Danilo & Sharon, Serbia

Based in Belgrade, Danilo & Sharon are the creative minds behind their luxury wedding photography studio. Influenced by fashion and advertising work, they have cultivated a distinctive aesthetics that appeals to contemporary couples worldwide.

Instagram, Website

Videography Judges

Our 2024 WUN Award video judges bring diverse expertise from across the Canon family. This year’s panel includes two Canon video experts and two seasoned ambassadors, offering a blend of insights to evaluate the entries. Canon, our Main Event sponsor, has thoughtfully assembled this team, ensuring a wide range of perspectives for a well-rounded evaluation of your work. We’re grateful to Canon for their support in creating a stellar judging experience for the video categories.

Fabio Mirulla, Italy

Here I am, Fabio Mirulla a wedding photographer based in Tuscany, Italy. I love art, every kind of it, from the use of light in XVII century paintings to the way modern artists see the world through their art works. I love travelling, especially with my old Mini and my Vespa and discovering new amazing places around me, those spots that are not in road maps and are unknown for most of the people. I enjoy reading Superheroes comics and watching cartoons, you’re never too old for them, nor for collecting Lego as I do.

Instagram, Website

Ram Sarup, United Kingdom

Hi there! I am the European Product Marketing Specialist at Canon EMEA, managing the comprehensive range of Canon cinema cameras and lenses. I lead product marketing activities across the Pro Video portfolio focusing on product launches, lifecycle management, content creation, and more. With many years of experience as a wedding videographer and photographer, I have a deep understanding of the culture, artistry and technical precision required to capture life’s most memorable moments.
Raïs De Weirdt

Raïs De Weirdt, Belgium

Hi! I’m Raïs, an enthusiastic yet devoted and dedicated wedding photographer from Belgium, although staying less in Belgium than anywhere in the world. You can find me running through the mountains for an epic shot, just the same way as you see me running at a wedding day because I “saw something incredible to shoot”. What is it you dream of? I cannot wait to expand our horizons together.

Instagram, Website

Jack Adair, United Kingdom

As a European Product Specialist at Canon EMEA, I bring extensive expertise in video products, overseeing a diverse range of Canon cameras and lenses. With a deep understanding of the creative and technical demands of videography, I specialize in supporting professionals across various applications, including weddings, commercial projects, feature films, and documentaries. My role involves empowering creators with the tools and knowledge they need to produce exceptional visual stories, no matter the genre.

Entry Requirements / FAQ

Each contest has its own unique requirements, and the Way Up North Awards are no exception. For instance, we’re strict about only accepting work captured on an actual wedding day (unless otherwise specified in a contest’s guidelines). Below, we’ve answered some common questions to help clarify the process. Keep in mind, each contest also includes specific guidelines to assist you in selecting the right work to submit.