By Grace Hatchell
The winners of The List Festival Awards 2026 have been announced, celebrating some of the standout creativity and talent across Edinburgh’s Art, Book, Film, Fringe and International festivals.
The final ceremony took place on Friday 28 August at W Edinburgh, bringing together artists, industry professionals and festival organisations for an afternoon celebrating another packed August in the city.
And after spending much of August running around Edinburgh myself, seeing show after show, it’s particularly lovely to see some familiar names among the winners.
The 2026 winners are:
- Edinburgh Art Festival – Best Rising Scottish Artist: Lee McCormack: A Magic Lantern
- Edinburgh International Book Festival – Best Rising Scottish Author: Alycia Pirmohamed
- Edinburgh International Film Festival – Best Scottish Film: These Violent Delights, Christopher Hampson and Oscar Sansom
- Edinburgh International Festival – Best International Show: A Trial – after An Enemy Of The People, Christiane Jatahy
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Best Cabaret Show: Sarah Hester Ross: Serving C*nt
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Best Comedy Show: Man Sings The Same Song Over And Over Again For An Hour, Conk
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Best Dance, Circus & Physical Theatre Show: Collaborator, Ockham’s Razor
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Best Kids Show: Boys Don’t Dance, Marc Brew
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Best LGBTQIA+ Show: Megasquirt: Fully Loaded
- Edinburgh Festival Fringe – Best Show From Adelaide: DUST, Charlaina Thompson
- International Fringe Encore Series Edinburgh Prize: Big Stuff, Baram and Snieckus
- Bragi Award: Common Tongue, JGProducing and Fraser Scott
- McTavish Award: McTavish Award
- Chris Forbes: Father Christmas, (Brass Tacks Comedy, Chris Forbes)
There’s a gloriously Fringe-like range in there too. Conk’s Man Sings The Same Song Over And Over Again For An Hour really does involve spending an hour singing the same song repeatedly, turning a deliberately simple idea into an exercise in absurdity. Meanwhile, Sarah Hester Ross combines viral songs, powerhouse vocals and cabaret chaos in Serving C*nt.
One winner that particularly caught my eye was DUST by Charlaina Thompson, which has won Best Show From Adelaide — and this one made me smile, as Theatre Village awarded DUST five stars when we saw it at the Fringe.
The true story is dedicated to the seven men who died in the Lofthouse Colliery disaster of 1973, alongside the servicemen who fought for their country and the miners who spent their working lives underground. It was a production that really stayed with us, so seeing DUST receive recognition from The List feels thoroughly deserved
Big Stuff, from Canadian comedy duo Matt Baram and Naomi Snieckus, has also picked up the International Fringe Encore Series Edinburgh Prize. That award can be a particularly exciting one for a Fringe production: the International Fringe Encore Series gives selected emerging artists the opportunity for an extended Off-Broadway run at New York’s SoHo Playhouse.
Brian Donaldson, editor of The List, said choosing the winners from this year’s shortlists had been no easy task, describing that difficulty as an indication of just how much talent Edinburgh had hosted this year. The team is already looking ahead to 2027 and wondering how this year can be topped.
There was also a lovely local touch to the awards themselves. Students on Edinburgh College’s HND Visual Communication course individually designed the laurels, giving emerging designers an opportunity to contribute directly to one of Edinburgh’s major festival-season industry events.
After the sheer number of shows, performers and ideas that descended on Edinburgh this August, awards season is a chance to stop for a moment and recognise just a handful of them.
Of course, anyone who has followed Theatre Village through the Fringe will know I have a soft spot for the smaller productions fighting for attention amongst thousands of shows. Awards can never capture everything that makes the Fringe special, but recognition can make a very real difference to a production and where it goes next.
So, satchel firmly back over my shoulder, congratulations to all of The List Festival Awards 2026 winners — and to everybody who made Edinburgh quite so ridiculously difficult to leave this August.
Grace x
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