News
The entry form now accepts Arabic-first submissions
Write the entry in the language the work was made in. Nothing is translated for judging.
2 min read
News · January 8, 2026
An entry can now be written in Arabic throughout, and it is judged in the language it was written in. Nothing is machine-translated before a juror reads it.
How the cycle runs
One cycle a year, in six phases: configuration, submissions, verification, jury scoring, public voting and results. Each phase opens only when the one before it has closed, and the dates are published before entries open rather than announced as they arrive.
A window can be extended before it closes, and the site reads the phase rather than the clock - so what a page says about voting is what the programme is actually doing, not what a date suggests it should be doing.
What gets published, and when
Nothing about a result appears before its group is finalised. Proposed rankings exist in the system throughout jury scoring and are never addressable from a public page - not in a listing, not in a share card, not in a URL somebody could guess.
When a place is withheld, it is simply not awarded. There is no fourth level and no note explaining an absence, because a published explanation of why nobody won is a judgement about the entries that did compete.
What happens next
Dates for the current cycle are published on How to Enter, and any change to a window is announced there before it takes effect. Entrants with an open submission are notified by email as well.
