Overview
- Organizers released a shortlist of 47 images and nine videos drawn from a record more than 10,000 submissions from 112 countries.
- The STERNA People’s Choice public vote is open on the contest website and one voter will be randomly selected to win a cash prize.
- A judging panel will select the official winners, which will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on December 8.
- Finalists’ work will be exhibited at the Oxo Gallery in London from December 9 to 13 and the 2026 contest is reported to support the Born Free Foundation.
- The competition, founded in 2015 to use humour to build empathy for animals, features diverse shortlisted images such as a ‘sexy mantis’, a caiman with vegetation like a wig, and an elephant kicking dirt at a calf.