Officially confirm your registration

To officially validate your participation, an important step is required on social media: Each participant must share the announcement of the competition in their Instagram Story. Please be sure to use our provided template with the appropriate partner subject. This measure increases the reach for our sponsors, which flows directly into the quality of the prizes for photographers and cosplayers. Unfortunately, submissions without this validated share step cannot be considered in the pre-judging of the Cosplay Photo Contest 2026. Thank you for your support in growing the community and promoting this unique art form.

• Mandatory task: Share the announcement post in the Instagram Story and tag the VIECC® Instagram account @vieccviennacomiccon.

• Template: Mandatory use of the official partner subject or Instagram post.[Download link template] [Link to Instagram post]

• Meaning: Necessary for admission to pre-judging.

• Confirmation: Our social media team will confirm your story and participation via DM.

Rules for your photo submission

We only accept original works that have never won a prize worth more than 50 euros in any other competition. A photographer may submit a maximum of three works per season. Only one submission per person is permitted.

To ensure the uniqueness and diversity of the competition, identical or closely resembling images from the same series are excluded from participation. It is the sole responsibility of the participants to fully clarify all copyrights and rights of use before the photographer and cosplayer upload the works.

As we are a family-friendly event, we only accept submissions that are safe for minors(SFW – Safe For Work). With your submission you confirm that no rights of third parties are violated.

• Limit: Maximum 3 works per photographer per season.

• Originality: No pictures that have already won major prizes.

• SFW check: Only adult content (Safe For Work) permitted.

• Rights: Full clarification of image rights by the participants.

File formats and technical requirements

Your files should not exceed 50 MB in size and should be in JPEG format. We recommend a resolution of at least 2000 pixels on the wide side and the sRGB color space. A special feature of our contest: finalists must also upload the unedited original photo. This helps the jury to objectively assess the editing performance of the photographer and cosplayer. If nominated for the grand fall final, the works will be exhibited at VIECC 2026. We also reserve the right to present the winners of the spring and summer seasons at the trade fair. We will request high-resolution print data for this at a later date.

• Format: JPEG, max. 50 MB, min. 2000 px width.

• Original: Unprocessed reference photo is mandatory.

• Finale: Possible exhibition of the works directly at the VIECC.

Craftsmanship instead of AI generation

Purely generative AI images are strictly prohibited. However, we do allow modern image editing and retouching as long as at least 50% of the original image is retained in the final work. Digital sets or pure 3D renderings are not permitted, as we want to reward the real craftsmanship of the photographer and cosplayer. AI-based tools in software such as Photoshop may be used for optimization as long as they do not completely replace the photo. Our goal is to honor the real interaction between camera and costume. In case of ambiguity, we reserve the right to request insight into the editing steps.

• AI ban: No purely generative images (AI Art) permitted.

• Editing: Permitted, provided 50% of the original photo is retained.

• Focus: Real collaboration between photographer and cosplayer.

Jury criteria and feedback process

The selection process takes place in two stages. First, the jury reviews all entries in the pre-judging stage. As the number of works can be very high, it is difficult to guarantee a detailed individual assessment at this stage. The four criteria – quality of the raw image, editing, art direction and overall impression – therefore relate primarily to the assessment of the finalists. After the competition, the finalist teams of photographer and cosplayer will receive detailed feedback. Participants without a nomination will only receive brief feedback due to the volume, as long as they have requested it when registering. In this way, we want to promote the quality of cosplay photography at VIECC 2026 in the long term.

• Stages: Pre-Judging (Top 20) and subsequent final round.

• Criteria: Raw image, editing, art direction, overall impression.

• Feedback: Individual feedback for finalists on request.

Rights holder and user agreement

You retain all copyrights to your works. However, by participating, you grant the VIECC the non-exclusive right to use the images for a period of five years for advertising purposes, social media and exhibitions. Photographer and cosplayer will always be mentioned by name, provided this is technically feasible. We reserve the right to slightly crop images for publications or prints in order to adapt them to the respective layout. The use of your works primarily serves to promote the competition and increase visibility for the entire cosplay scene. There is no financial compensation for this use.

• Copyright: All copyrights remain with you.

• Usage: For details on promotion usage, see rules PDF.

• Credits: Attribution of photographer and cosplayer guaranteed.

Download complete guidelines

Although we have summarized the most important points here, the full PDF rules are the legally binding basis for your participation. There you will find all the details on disclaimers, data protection regulations and the exact procedure for notifying winners. We ask every photographer and cosplayer to read the document carefully before submitting to avoid any misunderstandings. If your contact details change after registration, please inform us immediately so that we can contact you in case you win the prize.

• Legally binding: The PDF regulations are the final basis.

• Completeness: Contains all details on liability and data protection.

• Download: Download the document for 2026 here: [Link PDF].