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Underwater Awards Australasia 2026

by DivePhotoGuide, Underwater Australasia and UW Images (opens in a new tab)

Entries closed

Results are out

  • Closed 26 JUL
  • Fee from $10
  • Cats 9
Add to calendar Official site (opens in a new tab) Rules (opens in a new tab) Results (opens in a new tab)

You're viewing a past edition. See Underwater Awards Australasia 2027 →

Key dates

  1. Entries open

  2. Final deadline

  3. Results

Deadline extended — originally Sun 19 Jul 2026.

Entry fees

Entry options and prices
Per image or video$10

One-off, non-refundable fee paid at submission.

Prizes

Best of Show, chosen from the category winners

  • dive trips
  • gear
  • publication

Prizes advertised as worth almost AU$70,000, including resort and liveaboard trips, imaging and dive gear, and a Scuba Diver (ANZ edition) cover story for one category winner.

Categories

  • Sydney

    Local waters

    Restriction: Taken in the waters of metropolitan Sydney.

  • Australian

    Local waters

    Restriction: Taken in Australia or its internal territories.

  • International Waters

    Open

    Restriction: Taken anywhere.

  • Conservation

    Conservation

  • Tough TG

    Compact & mobile

  • Smartphone/Action Cam

    Compact & mobile

  • Portfolio

    Portfolio

  • Only Water

    Other

    New special category for 2026, judged by Ray Collins.

  • Reels Showcase

    Video

Who can enter

Open to
Open to all

Rules at a glance

Not summarised yet — check the official rules.

Your image rights

We haven't summarised the licence terms for this edition yet.

This is our plain-language summary, not legal advice. Read the official terms before entering: official rules & terms (opens in a new tab).

Judges

  • Tobias Friedrich · Photo judge
  • Jayne Jenkins · Photo judge
  • Matty Smith · Photo judge
  • Scott Portelli · Photo judge
  • Ross Long · Video judge
  • Ray Collins · Special category judge

Research notes

Third edition. The opening notice was published on 31 May 2026 at 6pm US Eastern time, which is 1 June in Sydney. The deadline was extended by a week from 19 July; organisers said no further extension would follow. Winners were revealed at an awards ceremony at the Go Diving Show ANZ in Sydney on 5 September 2026; Kat dos Remedios took Best of Show with the short film "Dragon". The 2026 licence clause could not be read; the 2024 rules had entrants keep copyright but grant an irrevocable, worldwide, sublicensable non-exclusive licence, so rights are left blank here. Direct page fetches were blocked in this research session, so official pages were read through search-engine extracts.

Provenance

Verified · 4 sources

  1. Underwater Awards Australasia 2026 rules (opens in a new tab) · accessed 2026-10-15
  2. Underwater Awards Australasia 2026 Open for Submissions (opens in a new tab) · accessed 2026-10-15
  3. Underwater Awards Australasia 2026: Deadline Extended! (opens in a new tab) · accessed 2026-10-15
  4. Winners of the Underwater Awards Australasia 2026 (opens in a new tab) · accessed 2026-10-15

All editions

  1. Underwater Awards Australasia 2027≈ late Jul 2027Expected
  2. Underwater Awards Australasia 2026closed Sun 26 Jul 2026Results out6 judges Results (opens in a new tab)