In 2018 the competition received a ground-breaking record of 1,320 entries from 58 countries and territories, which translated into 6,600 creative and high-quality illustrations. Five acclaimed illustration specialists from China and abroad used their personal perspective and professional background to select this year’s 50 finalists. This huge task kept them busy for a month and no less than three rounds of evaluation were necessary.
The 1,320 entries were shared evenly between local and foreign illustrators—which represented respectively 53% and 47% of the candidates. This contributes to making the Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition a unique contest with special significance in the Asia-Pacific region.
50 Finalists' release
The jury established a shortlist of 50 finalists using their personal criteria to assess the artistic quality, effectiveness, narrative strength and originality of the entries. The finalists’ artworks will be shown at CCBF, where publishing professionals and children’s book enthusiasts will be able to enjoy them during all the duration of the book fair. The exhibition will take place in the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Centre on 9-11 November 2018. So here it comes, we are happy to present the Golden Pinwheel shortlist of talented finalists.
(*The list is displayed in alphabetical order)
| Mariana Alcántara Pedraza | Mexico |
| Hassan Amekan | Iran |
| Anna Aparicio Català | Spain |
| Monica Barengo | Italy |
| Raquel Bonita | Spain |
| Annalisa Bollini | Italy |
| Elizabeth Builes Carmona | Colombia |
| Ana Bustelo García | Spain |
| Elisa Carareto Alves | Brazil |
| Carolina Celas | Portugal |
| Reza Dalvand | Iran |
| Luca di Battista | Italy |
| Massimiliano di Lauro | Italy |
| Elina Ellis | United Kingdom |
| Juanjo Gasull | Spain |
| Aleksandra Gołębiewska | Poland |
| Daniel Gray-Barnett | Australia |
| Han Xu | China |
| He Qian | China |
| Heimi | China |
| Gosia Herba | Poland |
| Li Yuxing | Germany |
| Liu Rui | China |
| Lu Lili | China |
| Lü Shasha | China |
| Jacques Maes & Lise Braekers | Belgium |
| Miao Yu | China |
| Jacopo Oliveri | Italy |
| Mari Pérez Pantoja | Chile |
| Natalie Pudalov | Israel |
| Sandra Rilova | Spain |
| María Victoria Rodríguez | Argentina |
| Felicita Sala | Italy |
| Maisie Paradise Shearring | United Kingdom |
| Yuriy Skomorokhov | Russia |
| Catarina Sobral | Portugal |
| Vanina Starkoff | Argentina |
| Sun Danqi | China |
| Zina Surova | Russia |
| Nikita Tereshin | Russia |
| Monika Vaicenaviciene | Lithuania |
| Maria de los Ángeles Vargas Torres | Chile |
| Vendi Vernić | Croatia |
| Sophie Vissière | France |
| Wu Peng | China |
| Xu Yu | China |
| Yang Meng | China |
| Federica Zancato | Italy |
| Ilaria Zanellato | Italy |
| Zhu Zhu | China |
The Judges
The Golden Pinwheel judges are five acclaimed illustration specialists from China and abroad. They are Serge BLOCH, CAI Gao, FEI Jia, Gita WOLF and XIONG Liang. They used their personal perspective and professional background to select the winners from the finalists.
2018 Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition: Prizes and Awards
The 2018 shortlist has been announced but this is not the end of the story! Several prizes and awards are yet to be attributed. Our Jury will meet again in Shanghai on 8 November to determine the two Grand Awards winners and Special Mentions, which will be announced on 9 November. The Publisher’s Choice Award and the Public Choice’s Award will also be announced during CCBF.
List of Golden Pinwheel awards:
- Golden Pinwheel Grand Award (China): one winner among the finalists from Mainland China
- Golden Pinwheel Grand Award (International): one winner among the finalists from other countries and territories (including Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan)
- Golden Pinwheel Illustration Special Mention (three recipients)
- Publisher’s Choice Award (one winner)
- People’s Choice Award (one winner elected by CCBF visitors)
The winner of one of the aforementioned awards will be selected to design CCBF’s visual identity in the following year (2019). The finalists’ artworks will also be featured in the 2018 Golden Pinwheel Illustration Yearbook.
