All competitions · Prize / award
The Magic Lantern Society Awards 2026
The Magic Lantern Society · United Kingdom
UK society awards for work connected to the magic lantern: two Mervyn Heard Awards of £300 for work in progress and the Dick Balzer Award for completed projects. Deadline 6 December 2026.
Your eligibility
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Who can enter
- Location
- Open worldwide
- Age
- No age limit
- Career stage
- Any
- Mediums
- Video & film, Performance, Installation, Mixed media
- Theme
- magic lantern, optical media, animation, projection
- Submission
- Online submission
- Also
- Open to all; any work with a connection to the magic lantern. Dick Balzer Award requires work completed between 1 Dec 2025 and 6 Dec 2026.
About
The Magic Lantern Society Awards encourage new developments in the world of the magic lantern and support work in any form, including research, archival work, performance, artwork, animation, film making and creative writing, provided it has a connection to the magic lantern.
The Mervyn Heard Award offers two cash awards of £300 plus a book of the winner's choice for planned or ongoing work not yet completed. The Dick Balzer Award is for projects completed between 1 December 2025 and 6 December 2026; it carries no cash award but the winner is invited to select a prize.
Both awards are open to all by application and close on 6 December 2026. Winners are announced at the Society's Annual General Meeting on 23 January 2027.