About the Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition
The Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition is an annual international illustration contest held as part of the China Shanghai International Children's Book Fair since 2015. The competition offers emerging illustrators international exposure and professional recognition, and helps them expand the reach and commercial opportunities of their work through exhibitions, the annual yearbook, and promotional initiatives that connect illustrators with publishers, brands, and creative industries.
In order to give recognition to the most talented artists in the competition, the Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition offers a wide array of awards: Grand Award (China), Grand Award (International), Special Mentions and People's Choice Award. All finalists and winners will be featured in CCBF Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition Yearbook, which will also be presented at the Golden Pinwheel Illustration Exhibition held at CCBF. Beyond that, one of the award-winners will be chosen by the CCBF Organising Committee to design the key visual of the next edition of the book fair.
In the last edition, the competition received a record-high number of 15,209 artworks created by 2,435 artists from 78 countries and territories, marking a 9.7% rise in total submissions from the previous edition.
Eligibility
- To compete, illustrators must be between 16 and 45 years of age (born between 1 January 1981 and 31 December 2010).
- Regardless of nationality, professional illustrators, art school students, and other illustration enthusiasts may all enter the competition free of charge.
- Entries may be sent by individual artists, schools, associations and other third-party organisations. The above third-party organisations shall be authorised by the illustrators themselves.
- Publishing houses who wish to enter artworks on behalf of an illustrator are allowed to submit only artworks selected from an original title from their own catalogue.
Entry Requirements
- There are no limits to the entry theme and content provided that the work is suitable for children’s book illustration. The competition accepts works created manually, digitally or by mixed techniques.
- A participant must submit a series of five illustrations on the same theme. Only one series may be submitted per artist each year. The artworks must be accompanied by an explanatory text in English (up to 500 signs) that describes their work and the tools/techniques used in its creation.
- The illustrations submitted shall be unaccompanied by any text, unless the text is an integral element of the illustration.
- Illustrations submitted in the competition may be published or unpublished. If published, the illustrations shall not have been published before 1 January 2024 (according to the copyright page of the book).
- The competition does not accept any work created or modified by AI (artificial intelligence).
- Illustrations previously submitted to the Golden Pinwheel are not eligible for re-entry.
Submission Procedure
Submission channel: CCBF official website
www.ccbookfair.com
Entries must meet the following criteria:
- Format: JPG or PNG
- Size: less than 20MB for each image
- Resolution: 300 DPI or above
- The ISBN number, the name of the publishing house, the country and the first publication date must be filled in the work information page.
Submission Deadline
08 June 2026, 23:59 (GMT+8)
Competition Schedule
Entry submissions: 26 March – 08 June 2026
Finalists announcement: 03 September 2026
Award-winners announcement: 13-15 November 2026
Awards
Grand Award (China)
One winner from Mainland China
· An invitation to the next edition of Bologna Children’s Book Fair, including round-trip flight in economy class and accommodation fully covered by the event organiser
· Trophy and certificate
Grand Award (International)
One winner from other countries and territories
· An invitation to the next edition of China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair, with round-trip flight in economy class and accommodation fully covered by the event organiser
· Trophy and certificate
Special Mentions
Three recipients
·Trophy and certificate
People’s Choice Award
One winner
· Trophy and certificate
For inquiries regarding submissions, reception, exhibitions and awards:
ccbf.goldenpinwheel@bolognafierechina.com
Business sponsorships, advertisement, promotion and other partnerships:
Nina Liu
nina.liu@bolgognafierechina.com
