A double standard
Congratulations to the winners ✨
All the entries are very impressive, and everyone's efforts deserve to be recognized.
However, within the framework of a "competition", with clearly defined rules, it is difficult to accept that entries that violate the rules win prizes.
A contest of a large organization, with a big prize; a contest with a jury, an inspection board and strict rules, let an AI work enter the voting round, and let works that violate the rules win the highest prize?
I ask myself: What are the rules for? Is their inspection board really good at its job and responsibility?
While there are other participants who have followed the rules and their responsibilities.
The rules explicitly obligated all artists to submit a "making of" video alongside their finished artwork. This was not a suggestion or an optional extra; it was a strict requirement for a valid entry. The making-of video and the final artwork had to be submitted together, at the same time. It is not sufficient for a participant to now provide proof or evidence that they created the work. The deadline for this proof was the moment of submission. Allowing someone to retroactively fulfill a mandatory requirement undermines the entire rulebook and is unfair to everyone who followed the instructions correctly.
The making-of was an integral part of the contest, designed to document the creative process from start to finish. Proof provided after the fact does not serve the same purpose. It is important to recognize that the making-of video itself was a substantial piece of work. Everyone had the same amount of time to complete both their final piece and the video. Therefore, it is completely unjust for a participant to win the final prize without having submitted one of the two mandatory components that defined the contest. This person, by not having a making-of video submitted on time, effectively entered an incomplete project.
All of us who participated in the art category followed the rules in good faith. We invested our time and effort into both the artwork and the making-of, believing that adherence to the rules was the foundation of a fair competition.