Golden Pinwheel 2024 Call for Entries Open！

The China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF) is glad to announce that a new edition of its Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition is open to entries from 29 March to 11 June 2024.

The Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition is an international illustration contest held annually as part of the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF), with the support of the Shanghai Press and Publication Administration. Since its creation in 2015, the competition has been providing a venue for emerging illustrators to showcase their talent. It aims to build bridges between them and children's publishers, both locally and globally. In so doing it has given fresh life to China's children's book industry. The Golden Pinwheel is not merely a standalone competition—it is a comprehensive programme which includes exhibitions, an illustrated yearbook and a variety of promotional campaigns.

Since 2023, the organising committee has launched a new category—Commercial, in addition to the original submission category—Book Publishing, so as to encourage illustrators to demonstrate their commercial value through diversified forms of artistic expression, and to promote communication and cooperation with brands and advertisers.

In the last edition, after a two-month submission campaign, the competition received an amazing number of 13,508 artworks created by 2,582 artists from 79 countries and territories.

Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition 2024 Key Visual by the Mexican Illustrators Armando Fonseca and Amanda Mijangos

CCBF Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition Yearbooks

2023 Golden Pinwheel Illustration Exhibition

Beyond that, one of the award-winners will be chosen by the CCBF Organising Committee to design the key visual of the 2025 edition of the book fair. This new image will be an integral part of the fair's visual communication for a whole year, including its use on our website, social media, gifts, and in advertisement campaigns.

2024 CCBF KV by Liu Longsha, 2023 Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition Grand Award Winner (China)

Faithful to its core objective, the Golden Pinwheel Competition has shaped its prizes and distinctions on providing unique and distinctive opportunities to its participants. As an example, the winner of Grand Award (China) in Book Publishing Category will be invited to attend the 2025 edition of the Bologna International Children’s Book Fair (BCBF), and the winner of Grand Award (International) in Book Publishing Category will receive an invitation to the 2025 China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF). Both invitations include a flight ticket and full accommodation, covered by the event organiser. The winner of the Grand Award in Commercial Category will receive a commercial contract worth CNY 5,000 (tax included) for CCBF derivative products. The invited artists will have the opportunity to participate as guests in various illustration-related activities taking place at the fair.

Previous Golden Pinwheel award winners reunion with juries at 2023 CCBF

Chinese Illustrator Luoling, 2020 Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition Grand Award Winner (China) at 2024 Bologna Children’s Book Fair

Chinese Illustrator Gui Tuzi, 2019 Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition Grand Award Winner (China) at 2024 Bologna Children’s Book Fair

2024 Golden Pinwheel Jury

（In alphabetic order）

Yukiko Hiromatsu (Japan)

Picture Book Author, Critic, Independent Curator; Vice-president, JBBY

Jon Klassen (USA)

Author, Illustrator

Carson Ellis

Morgane Vasta (France)

Freelance Mediator; Lecturer, Epigramme & Collegram

Xiao Aozi (China)

Artist; Associate Professor, School of Design and Art, Hunan University

Yao Hong (China)

Professor, Nanjing University of the Arts

Hadi Barkat (Switzerland)

CEO & Founding Publisher, HELVETIQ

Giacomo Benelli (Italy)

Co-founder and Coordinator, Mimaster Illustrazione, Milan

Tango (China)

Advertiser, Caricaturist

2024 Golden Pinwheel Regulations

1) To compete, illustrators must be between 16 and 39 years of age (born between 1 January 1985 and 31 December 2008).

2) Regardless of nationality, professional illustrators, art school students, and other illustration enthusiasts may all enter the competition free of charge. 

3) Entries may be sent by individual artists, advertisers, schools, associations and other third-party organisations. The above third-party organisations shall be authorised by the illustrators themselves. 

4) 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.

• The Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition has two categories: Book Publishing and Commercial. Participants can choose to participate in either category, or participate in both categories at the same time, but only one work can be submitted for each category.

• 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.

Book Publishing

Grand Award (China): one winner from China

•  An invitation to the 2025 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 2025 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

• Certificate

People’s Choice Award: one winner

• Elected by CCBF’s visitors, exhibitors, and social media followers

• Trophy and certificate

Commercial

Grand Award: one winner

• A commercial contract worth CNY 5,000 (tax included) for CCBF derivative products

• Trophy and certificate

Golden Pinwheel Special Mentions: three recipients

• Certificate

• The only official channel for registration and submission：

CCBF official website

• Entries must meet the following criteria:

1) Format: JPG or PNG

2) Size: less than 20MB for each image 

3) Resolution: 300 DPI or above  

4) PowerPoint presentation slides: size less than 50MB

5) Video: format acceptable for MP4, MPEG, AVI, MOV, MPG, and size less than 500MB

• Submission Deadline：

11 June 2024, 23:59 (GMT+8)

Entry submissions: 29 March–11 June 2024

Finalists announcement: 5 September 2024

Award-winners announcement: 15-17 November 2024 (as part of the Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair)

For inquiries regarding submissions, reception, exhibitions and awards:

ccbf.

Business sponsorships, advertisement, promotion and other partnerships: Nina Liu

nina.

Thank you to the following partners in Golden Pinwheel

About CCBF

The China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair (CCBF) is approved by Shanghai Press & Publication Administration, organised by Shanghai Xinhua Distribution Group Co., Ltd., China Education Publishing & Media Group Ltd., and China Universal Press & Publication Co., Ltd., co-organised by Ronbo BolognaFiere Shanghai Ltd. Launched in 2013, CCBF has quickly become an important event for the global publishing industry. It is the leading fair entirely dedicated to books and specific contents for children in Asia Pacific.

Over its ten years of development, CCBF has thrived to accomplishing its motto—Embracing the Future. Not only is the fair a leading copyright hub for children's books, but it is also a premium platform offering marketing solutions and crossover possibilities for a wide range of industries. Since 2018, it has entered into close cooperation with Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) organised by BolognaFiere.

CCBF website: