3 min read
Curious about the process of hosting the Way Up North Awards? We pull back the curtain and give you an insight to how things work.
By Tom RobakUpdated 13 October 2026
The second edition of the Way Up North Awards are happening this year, and just like the first edition, there are two parts in play:
Awards which are nomination-based and Contests
Sound confusing? Let's break it down!
AWARDS
Let’s start with the Awards. This is where you nominate someone else.
Nominations are open right now, and accepted until December 31st, 2018. So at anytime, you’re welcome to nominate your favourite European artist. Once submissions close, all nominees will be emailed and requested to submit their work (the work submitted must be from 2018), and nominees will have all of January to get their work in. Any work sent afterwards will not be considered.
The photography categories (Europe’s Best Wedding Photographer and Europe’s Best Young Wedding Photographer) will be asked to submit 10 images from two 2018 weddings (so 20 images in total).
The videography category (Europe’s Best Wedding Videographer) will be asked to submit one or two reels that are around 5 minutes (each).
Next, the work is judged. There are three rounds of judging:
First Round: The Way Up North team goes through all nominations and selects a top 100 list for each category based on the work submitted by the nominee.
Second Round: Selected Judges narrow the top 100 from each category down to a shortlist of 10. The shortlist will be announced on the website by March 1st.
Third Round: Winners are selected and announced live at the Way Up North event in Cannes, France on April 3rd, 2018.
CONTESTS
Next are the Contests. This is where you submit your own work.
Submissions open now until the end of December. Anyone is welcome to submit, and there is no cap to submissions. You can submit one image, you can submit 100 images, or even more.
Judging begins on February 1st, and the steps are as follows:
First Round: The Way Up North team go through all submissions and selects a top 1000 list for each category.
Second Round: Selected Judges narrow the top 1000 from each category down to a shortlist of 50 images for Best Wedding Photo Contest and 20 stories for Best Wedding Story Contest and Best wedding Video Contest respectively. The shortlists will be announced on the website by March 1st.
Third Round: 10 winners are selected for Best Wedding Photo and Top 5 plus one winner for Best Wedding Story Contest and Best Wedding Video Contest. These are all announced live at the Way Up North event in Cannes, France on April 3rd, 2019.
So, to recap, for each category there are the following winners:
Best Wedding Photo Contest: 10 winning images
Best Wedding Story Contest: Top 5 plus one winner
Best Wedding Video Contest: Top 5 plus one winner
WHERE TO SUBMIT / NOMINATE
Great question! The link to the submissions and nominations page is in the header. But! In case you missed it there, here it is again:
JURY
The judges for the photography awards and contests are Nirav Patel, Fer Juaristi, Citlalli Rico, and Flothemes.
Nirav Patel
Flothemes
The judges for the videography award and contest are Forged in the North, Tomasz Wagner, Sachin Khona and Benj Haisch.
Sachin Khona
Still confused? Add any questions you may have in the comments at the bottom of this post or start a new thread in the Facebook Community.