2025 Way Up North Awards, Individual Winners
2025 Way Up North Awards
The Individual Winners
Read out on stage at Way Up North Vienna, 6 May.
Title sponsor
Five individual awards were handed out on stage in Vienna on 6 May. Below are the winners, the other finalists, and everyone who has won each one before.
Way Up North started in 2015 and the awards followed two years later. The way they work has barely changed. The nominations come from the industry. Anyone who gets nominated is invited to enter, whether that's one nomination or a hundred. Story of The Year and Film of The Year are open to everybody, with no nomination needed.
Nominees send in their best work from the year and the judges score it. Highest total wins.
Imagen have been the title sponsor since Copenhagen in 2021, and the judges all come from their ambassador programme. Their founder Ron Oren handed out every award in Vienna alongside our host Sandra Franzén.
The judges
Who judged what
Eight judges, all Imagen ambassadors, split between the photography and the film categories.
Photography
Koko King
Canada
Fine art and editorial wedding photographer, working across digital and film. One half of the Hastings & King duo.
Germany
Nomadic wedding photographer and educator, shooting from the tropics to the desert. Documentary work with a refined edge.
Shanaya & Nitin Arora
India
Founders of WedFM, a studio and podcast about love, art and storytelling. Hundreds of weddings shot worldwide.
The Padillas
USA
Husband and wife studio in Sacramento. Shooting quinceañera and wedding stories together since 2019.
Film
John Bunn
USA
Started with a VCR camera at ten years old. First wedding in 2007, and more than 600 documentary films since.
Cinemate Films
United Kingdom
Gregg and Simon. Simon shapes the picture and the pacing while Gregg builds the sound.
Elton & Amanda Sabatino
Brazil
Filmmakers working across Brazil and Europe, mixing documentary footage with poetic storytelling.
Vanessa & Ivo
Portugal
Travelling and filming weddings since 2012, with an eye for the intimate moments inside a big day.
01
Europe's Best Wedding Photographer
Nominated by the industry and judged on a year of work. It's the one most people watch.
Left to right: Ron Oren of Imagen, host Sandra Franzén, and Inta Lankovska.
Latvia
Previous winners
The Framers (2024), Danilo & Sharon (2023), Anna Ascari (2022), Fabio Miglio (2021), Linda Liv Eliasson (2019), Karin Lundin (2018), The Kitcheners (2017)
02
Europe's Best Wedding Filmmaker
In the awards since 2017, and judged the same way as the photography title.
Sandra Franzén looking for A&Y Videography, who couldn't make it to Vienna to collect it.
A&Y Videography
Spain
03
Europe's Best Young Wedding Photographer
Everyone who has won this was 25 or younger at the time. Look at where they are now.
Left to right: Ron Oren of Imagen, host Sandra Franzén, and Sander Vill.
Sander Vill
Finland
Previous winners
Heta Korkonen (2024 and 2023), Ingrid Tjernström (2022), Anna Ascari (2021), Jennifer Nilsson (2019), Anda Upmale (2018), Danilo & Sharon (2017)
04
Story of The Year
Open to anyone, no nomination needed. One wedding, photographed start to finish.
Inta Lankovska's second award of the night, with Ron Oren and Sandra Franzén.
Latvia · Tereze and Rudolf
Previous winners
Bethine Elizabeth (2024), Ingrid Tjernström (2023), Inta Lankovska (2022), Everbay (2021), Deux drôles d'oiseaux (2019), Chloe Lapeyssonnie (2018), Angelica Braccini (2017)
05
Film of The Year
Also open to everyone. One film, judged on how it holds together from the first frame to the last.
Maru Films couldn't make it to Vienna, unfortunately.
Maru Films
Netherlands
2025 finalists
- Grand Amor United Kingdom
- Joao Rosa Portugal
- Remi Schouten Netherlands
The rest of the awards
The years before this
The photo contest ran alongside these five. Every year has its own post.
Thank you
To everyone who entered
Entering means handing a year of your work to a panel of strangers and then waiting. Plenty of people did that this year.
Thank you to Imagen, who have kept the awards running since 2021, and to the eight judges.
Next one is València, 13 and 14 October.
The 2025 Way Up North Awards were announced on stage at Way Up North Vienna on 6 May 2026. Title sponsor
