A winning illustration from the 2025 Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition competition. Illustrator: Marc Majewski, France. Image: BCBF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
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The 62nd edition of Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 31 to April 3) will feature a 59th Illustrators Exhibition drawn from the largest pool of submissions yet: 4374 illustrators applied, sending 21,870 illustrations from 89 international markets and regions.
The length of the “shortlist” alone could make most publishing awards organizers burst into tears: There were 324 finalists.
From those, the jury of five sturdy souls have chosen 76 sets of illustrations by 77 authors from 29 countries and territories.
Jurors this year:
- Walter Fochesato, deputy editor of Andersen Magazine in Italy
- Chris Houghton, an illustrator in Ireland
- Neal Porter, publisher of the eponymous Neal Porter Books, an imprint of Holiday House in the States
- Felicita Sala, an illustrator in Italy
- Gema Sirvent Laguna, publisher of Libre Albedrìo in Spain
Uses of the Illustrators Exhibition Works
A winning illustration from the 2025 Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition competition. Illustrator: Joanne Liu, Hong Kong. Image: BCBF
Not only will the entire exhibition be seen at Bologna, but it’s to be mounted online via the show’s BCBF Galleries portal.
The cover artwork of Bologna’s ‘Illustrators Annual 2025’ is by Canadian Sydney Smith
Winners’ works from this competition will be part of the Illustrators Annual, a catalogue that goes into specialist bookstores, in a publication by Corraini in Italian and English; in Japan by JBBY; in South Korea by CCOC; and in China by Dandelion Picture Book House. The Canadian illustrator Sydney Smith, last year’s winner of the HC Andersen Award, is creating the cover for this year’s catalogue.
In an interesting move, the fair has announced that it will choose the creator next year’s “visual identity” for the fair from the 324 finalists of this year’s Illustrators Exhibition competition. The visual identity is, effectively, the brand illustrative catalogue for the fair each year—it becomes easily the most pervasive and ubiquitous imagery of the fair, this year the work of Bruno de Almeida, a Brazilian based in Portugal.
- You can see the complete list of 76 winning artists for 2025 and the countries they represent, on this page.
- The complete list of 344 finalists is found on this page.
All finalists during the fair will have priority access and a guaranteed place for a portfolio review as part of the activities of the Illustrators Survival Corner 2025 with important publishers, illustrators, authors, agents and art directors, in order to receive opinions and valuable suggestions
A winning illustration from the 2025 Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition competition. Illustrator: Mariana Ruiz Johnson, Argentina. Image: BCBF
More from Publishing Perspectives on publishing and book awards in the international industry is here. More on Bologna Children’s Book Fair is here, more on children’s books is here, more on the Italian market is here, and more on world publishing’s trade shows and book fairs is here.