Bologna Portfolio Award

The Bologna Portfolio Award - BCBF26 aims to acknowledge the illustrator’s portfolio as a key tool to furthering his/her profession, recognizing its major role as a means of accessing new job opportunities and as a communication tool between the illustrator and his/her clients (publishers, art directors, literary agents, etc.).

The purpose of the initiative is to highlight those characteristics of the portfolio, such as clarity of presentation and consistency of language, that make it a professional facilitator between the world of creativity and content production. The award is organised by Bologna Children's Book Fair and curated by Mimaster Illustrazione

This year once again, the Bologna Portfolio Award has its winner.
The award for best portfolio was presented by an international jury to illustrator Fernando Arce.

The first selection round took place on April 16 during the Portfolio Marathon 2026, held as part of The Illustrators Survival Corner program at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. On this occasion, participation was reserved exclusively for the illustrators selected for the Illustrators Exhibition 2026, as a recognition of their talent.

The portfolios of the finalists who advanced through the initial selection were then reviewed by an international jury composed of Christine Morault, Director of Éditions MeMo (France); Eric Telfort, illustrator and visual artist, Dean of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design (USA); and Marco Ghidelli, publisher at Raum Italic (Italy).

The prize for this edition of the Bologna Portfolio Award – BCBF26 is a trip to the China Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair 2026 (November 13–15), offering the winner the opportunity to connect with the Chinese and Asian publishing industries and to take an active role in the activities of The Illustrators Survival Corner program during the fair.

The jury selected illustrator Fernando Arce as the winner for the following reasons:

Fernando Arce’s portfolio stood out among the shortlisted finalists for a multitude of aspects that ultimately secured his victory. The graphic choices are clear and cohesive, placing themselves entirely at the service of the artwork and enhancing its overall quality. What is particularly striking is the narrative structure, which guides and engages the reader as they flip through the pages of the portfolio. This approach successfully walks a fine line—in an innovative and original manner—transforming the portfolio into an editorial product in its own right, complete with a poetic and evocative narrative arc and a clear, precise selection of Fernando’s work. Furthermore, the jury emphasizes the portfolio's ability not only to clearly showcase the author's distinct visual voice, but also to hint at the creative possibilities and potential applications this language can interpret. This aspect is even more decisive for an artist like Fernando—an illustrator and ceramicist—who expresses himself through both two- and three-dimensional mediums.

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FINAL RANKING – BOLOGNA PORTFOLIO AWARD – BCBF26

• Fernando Arce 

• Dipacho

• Camilla Neri

• Enric Rodriguez

• Maria de Castro Nogueira Noessing Pessoa Lopes

• Vitor Rocha

• Dinara Mirtalipova

• Florine Mathieu

• Sara Baptista

• Siqi Zhang

• Ximena Garcia

• Yael Frankel

• Aneta Lukianska 

• Aziza Kuchmezova 

• Benedetta Friso Bellemo

• Giulia Bertola

• Luca Scandurra

• Maria Giovanna Mura

• Saioa Olatz Aguinaco Lamarain

• Xinlei Zhao

• Elena Pennelli

• Kasia Księżopolska

• Lucie Lučanská

• Marina Montero Vicén

• Meng-Hsuan Kuan

• Roberto Hofer

• Signe Torp

• Tingfang Yang

• Yuxuan Zhou

• Eunhye Cho 

• Irene Penazzi

• Lauren Saunders

• María Elizagaray Estrada

• Máray Mariann

• Mariia-Anastasiia Rizak

• Melissa Crowton

• Minjoo Ko

• Ophélie Paris

• Peng Hsiung Hsu

• Sio Maan Yang

• Sohee Hong

• Kin-Choi Lam

• Shana Cheung

• Takuma Kurokawa

• Josefina Echaiz Leiton

• Mariana Rio

• Tania Mancini

• Yilun Zhang

• Abbie Preston

A Special Mention was awarded to: Dipacho, Sara Baptista, and Vitor Rocha.

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Our sincere thanks go to the reviewers involved in the first selection phase, who evaluated portfolios during the Portfolio Marathon 2026:

• A buen paso

• Am-Book Inc.

• Babel Libros

• Bookolia

• Ediciones Ekaré

• Franco Cosimo Panini editore

• Instituto Emilia

• Kalandraka

• HarperCollins Children’s Books

• Limonero

• Little Brown

• Mediavaca

• Phaidon

• Quinto Quarto Edizioni

• Raum Italic

• Rotopol

• Scribble

• Terre di Mezzo

• Tundra Book Group

• Widnokrąg

• Wytwórnia