Finalists Announced - Rookie Awards 2025
The top entries selected from thousands of submissions by emerging artists around the world. This isn’t just a shortlist. These are the creatives who rose to the top and caught the attention of some of the most respected names in the industry.
After months of judging, it’s time. Rookie Awards 2025 Finalists are here! The top entries selected from thousands of submissions by emerging artists around the world. This isn’t just a shortlist. These are the creatives who rose to the top and caught the attention of some of the most respected names in the industry.
From April to June, Rookie Awards 2025 attracted an overwhelming wave of talent from across the globe. We received over 6,500 portfolio entries, submitted by students and self-taught artists representing more than 100 countries and hundreds of creative schools. Behind the scenes, our global judging panel poured countless hours into reviewing and scoring each project, resulting in tens of thousands of individual critiques across categories. The scale, the effort, and the quality this year were nothing short of extraordinary.
Each finalist was selected based on creative strength, technical execution, presentation, originality, range of work, and industry potential. The scoring was tight. In some categories, fractions of a point separated the top contenders.
These artists are now in the running for Rookie of the Year, Film of the Year, Game of the Year, across individual industries and categories. Plus exclusive Career Opportunities with leading studios and brands.
Massive thanks to our sponsors
Without them, this wouldn’t happen. They support the awards, provide prizes, and most importantly, help create a platform for artists.
Rookie Awards 2025 is proudly supported by Dell Technologies and Lenovo, along with industry leaders including Marvelous Designer, Foundry, Wacom, XPPen, Maxon, Clip Studio Paint, AWN, ImagineFX Magazine, befores & afters, Playgrounds, and top studios such as Hugo Boss, Remedy Entertainment, Fortiche, Skydance Animation, Ghost VFX, Iain Finch from Patagonia, Virgile Biosa, INDG, Important Looking Pirates, Graph Visual Studio, Outpost VFX, Electrive Theatre Collective, PlaySide Studios and 2G Studio. These partners provide mentorship, career guidance, and cutting-edge tools to support emerging talent.
What’s next?
The judging panel gets straight back into it and now nominates their Top 5 selections for each of the categories. We use this information to select category winners.
The general public can also get involved now by voting for their favourite entries. Simply visit the entry pages for finalists and click the 'Vote for People's Choice" button. The entries with the highest share count will win.
Winners will be announced August 27th, 2025, so make sure to check back soon!
Thanks for making 2025 our most amazing year yet.
