From April 20 to June 1, 2023, cartoonists will be able to submit their work for the fourth edition of the European Cartoon Award. Submitted cartoons must have been published between May 1, 2022, and June 1, 2023, with a media outlet from a country within the Council of Europe, plus Belarus, and Russia.

Founded in 2019, by the European Press Prize and Studio Europa Maastricht, the European Cartoon Award has one of the highest monetary prizes for cartoonists, granting its winner a prize of 10,000 euros. The cartoons can be submitted here.

About the European Cartoon Award

The European Cartoon Award was founded in 2019 by the European Press Prize and Studio Europa Maastricht to encourage cartoonists in their essential work for freedom of expression.

'I am proud of how the ECA has grown, quickly becoming one of the most important awards for cartoonists in the world. We are sure that this edition will exceed expectations and greatly help cartoonists everywhere in the world. Now, like never before, we need them to be sharp and help us, with their work, to make sense of what happens around us' said the organizer of the ECA 2023, and Head of Communications and PR with the European Press Prize, Emanuele Del Rosso.


Award ceremony and exhibition at Beeld & Geluid

Following the success of the exhibition hosted by the Beeld & Geluid Museum of The Hague in 2022, for this year’s edition, the European Cartoon Award will hold its Award Ceremony and exhibition opening once again at the renowned Dutch museum. The Award Ceremony will take place, therefore, at Beeld & Geluid on September 14, 2023. Moreover, the best 40 editorial cartoons will become a temporary exhibition, that will then travel to other museums, hopefully even outside the Dutch borders.

Last week, we (in the form of CM editors Tjeerd Royaards and Emanuele Del Rosso) were at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia to give a workshop about the power of cartoons. If you weren't there and didn't watch the livestream, you can watch the recording of the event:

In true workshop style, we didn't just talk about cartoons, but we challenged the audience to make a cartoon themselves. We gave them the assignment to come up with a cartoon featuring Putin and a tank, giving pointers on how to come up with the best visual.

One of the sketches made during the workshop.

In addition to the workshop, we also did some live drawing each day, showing festival attendants how cartoonists work and talking to them about the importance of cartoons.  As we've said before on multiple occasions, we strongly believe that editorial cartoons are an essential part of the journalistic landscape. To that end, we think cartoons should have a place at every edition of IJF in one form or another and we aim to be there next year as well. Here below some more impressions of our session at the festival.

All photos © Bartolomeo Rossi

Petar Pismestrović is a cartoonist born in former Yugoslavia and living in Austria. He has been making editorial cartoons since 1970. He is one of the founders of the Croatian Society of Cartoonists (HDK) and has been working for Kleine Zeitung (Austria) since 1992.

We are happy to welcome Paresh Nath from India to our cartoonist community. Paresh is an award-winning artist based in New Delhi, with more than 36 years of experience in international media.

Next week, Cartoon Movement will be present at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia. If you're there, join CM editors Tjeerd Royaards and Emanuele Del Rosso on Friday April 21 at 2pm for the workshop The Power of Cartoons. In this workshop, cartoonists Emanuele Del Rosso and Tjeerd Royaards show the participants what makes political cartoons tick. Why are cartoons one of the first things to be banned by authoritarian regimes? Who do political leaders (especially those who don't like democracy all that much) fear what in essence is no more than a few lines on paper? Join us to find out the power of cartoons in this hands-on workshop that will challenge you to make your own political cartoon. Drawing skills are not required.

Additionally we're also hosting a side event at the festival, which we've titled Cartoonists' Cafe. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, between 5pm and 6pm, we'll be drawing live at the bar of Hotel Brufani. Join us to see how cartoons our made, to have a drink and to chat. But remember, don't feed-back the artists.

We are happy to welcome US cartoonist Wes Rowell. He began his career as a digital illustrator in 1998. The majority of his illustration work has been editorial, appearing in a wide array of magazines, from tech to education, travel to health & wellness. Wes began cartooning professionally in late 2021.