Photography Award Launch of the Deauville Photo Sport Festival

The City of Deauville is launching the first edition of the Deauville Photo Sport Festival!

Deauville’s sporting and cultural journey continues. In line with the Paris 2024 Games, this new festival celebrating photography and international sporting cultures will explore, through images, the many dimensions of sport as a cultural, social, human, and artistic phenomenon.

The Deauville Photo Sport Festival will celebrate not only the beauty of sports images, but also the stories they tell, the values they embody, and the transformations they inspire. Photography is a privileged witness to the powerful messages of perseverance, humanity, and hope that sport spreads throughout society and to younger generations.

Deauville proudly embarks on this new event, which echoes its commitment to harnessing sport and culture to drive societal change.

The Festival

“Far from being in opposition, sport and culture have been united since ancient times in a shared history. The feats of athletes have transcended the ages through the narratives of painting and sculpture. Today, documentaries and photos have taken up this mantle. They capture the enthusiasm and cohesion of a society that finds its bearings in the values of sport. Deauville intends to make this cultural and sporting heritage shine.” — Philippe Augier, Mayor of Deauville.

Cultural and sporting are two defining traits of Deauville, the city of a thousand challenges. As a city of culture, Deauville has shone since its inception, attracting writers, painters, photographers, and filmmakers…

This creative spirit inspires Deauville’s open cultural policy, which prioritizes discovery, sharing, and learning through five festivals (Easter Festival, Livres & Musiques Festival, American Cinema Festival, Août Musical, and Planches Contact) and top-tier programming, including groundbreaking exhibitions, conferences, and shows, all housed in the recently opened Franciscaines Cultural Center.

As a land of sport, Deauville was born from a racecourse and the sea. It has hosted tennis, golf, regattas, equestrian and motor sports, athletics… and later, a wide range of other disciplines and events that have flourished over time.

Involved at the heart of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games by welcoming delegations from around the world and by hosting the Flame, Deauville is committed—by vocation and with conviction—to celebrating all sporting victories in the long term.

At the intersection of the Planches Contact Festival (16th edition – from 25 October 2025 to 4 January 2026), which champions photographic creation, and the Deauville Sport Doc Festival (2nd edition from 2 to 4 December 2025), which highlights sports documentaries, the Deauville Photo Sport Festival (from 21 June to 21 September 2025) almost naturally integrates into the annual calendar of major events in Deauville and will take place every year from June to September.

• To showcase the best of contemporary sports photography, in terms of technical performance, photographic aesthetics, and value.
• To inspire through the most moving and impactful sports photo reports with a social purpose, created around the world.
• To celebrate the history of sporting culture through historical thematic exhibitions, educational focuses on a particular sport, and tributes to the greatest sports photographers and photographic collections in the world.

In Practice

The festival will be open to everyone—professionals, enthusiasts, and amateurs of sport and photography alike. It will take the form of about ten unique exhibitions, freely accessible throughout the city during the three summer months, and a grand opening evening, “La Nuit du Sport,” on 21 June at the Deauville International Centre.

This evening will feature public screenings and five award ceremonies for photographers, media outlets, and publishers, honoring images produced in the 14 months preceding the festival:

• Photographer of the Year Award
• Best Sports Report Award
• Award for Technical Photographic Innovation
• Best Front Page Award of the Year
• Sports Book of the Year Award

Key Dates

• From 24 January to 25 February: Call for contributions to press agencies, photo agencies, media outlets, and professional photographers to participate in the Festival.
• End of March: Selection of the subjects.
• Before 15 April: Notification of the shortlisted candidates.
• Saturday, 21 June: Opening evening of the festival dedicated to sports photography at the Deauville International Centre.
• From 21 June to 21 September: Exhibitions of the sports photography festival throughout the city.

Contest Details

Call for contributions directed at media outlets, photo agencies, and professional photographers: THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION IS 25 FEBRUARY AT 12:00 PM! Link to the call and participation documents here: https://www.indeauville.fr/deauville-photo-sport-festival

Organization and artistic direction: BITL Agency – [email protected]
Festival: City of Deauville from June 21 to September 21, 2025
Nuit du Sport: June 21 evening at the Centre International de Deauville