Here at Aesthetica, we are proud to champion the very best of emerging talent across contemporary art, film, writing and music. Across the Aesthetica Art Prize, Aesthetica Film Festival and Creative Writing Award, we work with thousands of creatives who are contributing to a global dialogue, addressing the ideas, challenges and possibilities of our time. We put their work in front of top industry experts and passionate audiences, helping foster meaningful connections and career-defining opportunities. Today, we’re spotlighting our 2025 winners, a group of outstanding practitioners whose originality, vision and ambition set them apart, and whose work points to the future of contemporary culture.
The 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize brought together 25 shortlisted artists, whose works span painting, drawing, video, installation, performance, photography, digital art and film. The winners were announced at the launch of the prize’s exhibition at York Art Gallery. This year’s Main Prize is awarded to Tobi Onabolu for Danse Macabre, a work that is as expansive as it is intimate. Onabolu, a London-born artist-filmmaker and writer based in Grand Popo, Benin Republic, approaches artmaking as a site of healing and renewal. Danse Macabre explores spirituality, mental health and the human psyche through a layered choreography of sound, text and movement, reframing conversations around mental health.
The Emerging Prize is awarded to Sam Metz for Porosity, a sculptural installation shaped by lived experience. Metz, a neurodivergent artist with ocular albinism, translates sensory perception of the Humber Estuary into bright yellow structures that refract and reflect light. For Metz, sculpture is a non-verbal language – a medium through which embodied experiences of disability and chronic pain find expression. Porosity resists the notion of sculpture as fixed or immutable; instead, it embraces difference as both method and message. The work is an act of translation – from lived experience into physical form – and a radical reimagining of how disability informs and shapes artistic practice.
Each year, Aesthetica Film Festival celebrates the remarkable talent on display throughout the festival with the Closing Night Awards Ceremony. There are 22 awards on offer, including recognising the best film in each genre, the top Game, VR and Podcast, as well as cinematography, director, editing and screenplay. The overall winner is awarded Best of Fest, with previous winners having gone on to receive BAFTAs and Academy Awards. This year, that honor went to The Hold, directed by JD Donnelly. The documentary follows free-diving world champion and national record holder, Alice Hickson. The film goes on a visual journey through her story and psychology over the course of her 7 minutes 30 seconds record breath hold.
Our Creative Writing Award Anthology featured 40 poems and 20 short stories, providing a platform for the next generation of literary talent. This year’s poetry winner is Practicing the Saving by Christina Hutchins. Chris McCabe, Chair of the Poetry Prize jury, said: “this aligned the jurors as one, fired us with positivity, stunned us with hope. It’s so rare to read a poem that leaves you ready to face the world with renewed optimism.” The winner of the Short Fiction prize was The Pink House by Cait Kneller. Dr Marl’ene Edwin, Chair of the Short Fiction Prize, said: “The judges felt that this story captured a whole world. A complete story was told in such a way that it felt like the reader was given a view into a much larger world.”
In 2025, we brought a music festival to the film festival. The New Music Stage, presented collaboration with TALENTBANQ, Caffè Nero, and Imagesound, was a bold competition showcasing 10 breakthrough acts at York Theatre Royal. The inaugural winner was Dilettante, who delivered a set that captivated both audience and jury with emotive vocals, layered textures and commanding stage presence. Praised by MOJO and featured at SXSW and The Great Escape, Dilettante now embarks on festival appearances and cross-disciplinary collaborations across music, film, and XR. The singer reflected that “The New Music Stage reminded me why live music matters. It’s about sharing something unexpected in real time and connecting with people in the room.” Her set encapsulated the essence of live discovery.
Entries are Open for the Aesthetica Art Prize, Creative Writing Award and Aesthetica Film Festival.
Learn more and submit at the links below:
Aesthetica Art Prize | Creative Writing Award | Aesthetica Film Festival
