The 2026 A MAZE. Awards submissions broke every record: 435 entries from 78 countries.
From May 13-16 A MAZE. / Berlin 2026 – 15th International Games and Playful Media Festival will open its doors at silent green Kulturquartier, Panke Culture, Berlin Wedding, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Urban Spree, b-dome, Transmediale Studio and at the A MAZE. Shop-Gallery. Besides the 5 years award partnership with WINGS, A MAZE. is excited to welcome the bi-annual XR-History Award by Körber-Stiftung, eCommemoration programme as part of its family.
For this year’s special anniversary, artists from 78 countries submitted 435 works in the field of games, art and playful media, including 67 entries beyond the screen (+6 countries, +71 entries). The international Selection Committee and the A MAZE. team chose 25 nominees for the main awards “Most Amazing”, “Long Feature”, “Digital Moment”, “Explorer” and “Human Human Machine”, five nominees were selected for the WINGS Award, 3 nominees were highlighted for the XR-History Award, 16 works received the festival`s honorable mention.
“For 15 years, we’ve been presenting a fine selection of games and playful media to the world, celebrating the art form and its artists through the A MAZE. Awards. I’m very excited about the reactions and the onsite exhibition at silent green featuring this year’s nominations and honorable mentions, which highlight the global and socio-political era of play through impactful interactions, stories, and experiences. Don’t miss out! Viva arthouse games!”
— Thorsten S. Wiedemann, Artistic Director of A MAZE.
“This year’s entries certainly dig deeper and tackle a diverse range of topics, asking about one’s role in the world, growing up and growing old, the dis-/connection between communities, remembrance culture, current and future perspectives on migration, incomes, relationships and transformations. Scrolling through all works makes one fact very obvious: This is a global movement of artists who are not afraid to walk unbeaten paths, who combine artforms and go beyond analog and digital. I urge everyone to have a look at all submissions! — Now, after months of reviews by the Selection Committee, WINGS, Körber-Stiftung and us at A MAZE., I’m more than happy to invite everyone to the playful discourse the nominated works will open up at the festival.”
— Matthias Löwenotter, Award Curator of A MAZE.
The international jury now has the honor to select categories and choose the winners. Combining perspectives as artists, performers, researchers, teachers, world designers, creators and curators, this year’s interdisciplinary, independent and international jury consists of Anan Fries (Germany/ Switzerland), Antonin Fourneau (France), Farfama (Japan), Meghna Jayanth (UK) and the winner of the Most Amazing Award 2025, Julián Cordero (Ecuador/ United States). More details at: amaze-berlin.de/jury
The winners will be announced at the Award Ceremony on May 15, 2026 at silent green Kulturquartier and on the live-stream – on amaze-berlin.de.
This selection of interactive masterpieces will be exhibited at A MAZE. / Berlin 2026 from May 13-16, 2026.
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As Long As You’re Here by Autoscopia Interactive (Denmark, Netherlands, United States)
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Border Control by rect repair (China, Australia)
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Broke Signal Badlands by Forward Instinct (United States)
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coalescent || tidal rapture by Hanwen Xu & Hatim Benhsain (China, Morocco)
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Crashboard 2000 by Incontrolab (Léon Denise & Emilie Breslavetz) (France)
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Easy Delivery Co. by Sam C (Canada)
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Egglets – The Long 10 Days by wieLuft (Germany)
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InSync by DaChu Interactive (China, United States)
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LabRats by cirqueSaw (United States)
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Loopscroll by Shaman Garage (Spain, China)
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Manifest Your Dream Job Sleep Meditation by Jade Lin @strawberrycongee (UK)
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No, I’m not a Human by Trioskaz (Georgia)
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Otherworlds by Sophia Bulgakova (Ukraine, Netherlands)
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PEPPERED: an existential platformer by Vas Most, Nararcher, Fedya Balashov (Russia)
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Pigeon: A Love Story by Wristwork (UK)
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RUMINANT 4444 by Miurbu (Switzerland)
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Season 31 by MainSequenceStar (France)
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Silicomrades by Outside the Fox (Czechia)
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SIRE by heartcase (Netherlands)
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Skate Story by Sam Eng (United States)
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Small Void by Alice Bucknell & Jonathan Coryn (United States, France)
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The Great Orator by The Shoebox Diorama (Daniel Ernst) (Netherlands)
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The Wide Open Sky is Running out of Catfish by ZIPIT! Games – Benjamin Warfield & Joshua Pulsifer (United States)
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Trans Theft Horso by Ben Swithen (UK)
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We Are Dead Animals by Tote Tiere Maarten (Netherlands, Germany)
WINGS Award Nominees by WINGS
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Beware of the Cartographer! by Tohu Bohu Games (Netherlands, France)
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NAME OF THE WILL by Zeitgeist Studio (United States, Hong Kong SAR China, Japan, Canada, Estonia, UK)
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Phonopolis by Amanita Design (Czechia, UK)
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The Last Exam by Neslihan Aydınoğlu (Türkiye)
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Tom the Postgirl by Oopsie Daisies (Switzerland)
XR-History Award Nominees by Körber-Stiftung / eCommemoration
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Coalition Constellation: Constellating Reparations by Ren Loren Britton (United States, Germany)
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Flesh Network by Sickness International (United States)
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Unsettled by Cuerpos Migrantes (Peru, Argentina)
Honorable Mentions
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BȢGENĒ by Danya Gonsales (Costa Rica, Russia)
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Eclipsium by Housefire (Sweden)
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I Don’t Want To Be A Good Woman by We Remember Games (Iran)
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kitiklop by Flex & Dorian (France)
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Lucky Castaway by Rare Crab Studio – Phillipp Gröbelbauer & Sven Kristlbauer (Switzerland)
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METAMORPHOSIS by Hector, Federico, Chancellor, Liam, Agustina (Mexico, Argentina, United States, Ireland, Philippines)
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MINE MIND by Shoto Hayakawa (Japan)
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Novocene – A Possible Future by Jens Isensee, Julian Knepel, Maja Stark (Germany)
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Panthalassa by Meia Calça (Portugal, UK)
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Proyecto EXO by PlayLab DiTella (Argentina)
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quantcept by alpha_rats (France)
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Real Vampires by Those Eyes (Denmark, Poland)
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Relooted by Nyamakop (South Africa)
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Stealth Crossword by Computer James (Ireland)
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Stip by Sixtyfour (Belgium)
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Yuha’s Nightmares. Episode One: Catastrophe by Supr Experience (Georgia)
It’s highly recommended to see all submissions at: amaze-berlin.
All nominees: amaze-berlin.de/
All judges: amaze-berlin.de/jury
