Aotearoa’s Best awards call for entries now open; deadline Friday, June 26

Entries are now open for the Best Design Awards, Aotearoa’s most prestigious celebration of design and creative craft.

Run by Toi Manahau Designers Institute of New Zealand, the Best Awards have long been the benchmark for creative excellence across disciplines. In recent years, the awards have also become a home for the country’s most powerful film and animation work.

For 2026, the Film and Animation categories have been reworked specifically for creative agencies and production companies. An awards show built on Whakamana Te Toi. Design craft excellence at its core. Judging that goes beyond just output to the why behind it. Rewarding work that elevates through craft and intention, work that cuts through the tide of a content and I driven content.

From TV and online commercials to long-form storytelling, video campaigns, motion design and 3D animation, the categories are designed to reward craft, clarity, and creative ambition in equal measure.

Last year, The Māori Roll Call and Diary of a Head Injury each secured the coveted Purple Pin. The highest honour in New Zealand design. Awarded not just for excellence in category, but as the single most outstanding piece of work in a discipline.

The Best Awards is also one of the few major awards programmes to remain entirely analogue in its judging from start to finish. No remote scoring. Over 60 judges and conveners, eight disciplines, across seven days, all in-person.

For agencies and production companies working in film and animation, Entries are now open and can be entered here.

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