The List Festival Awards 2025 winners announced

The winners have been announced for this year’s The List Edinburgh Festival Awards 2025.

Organised by The List, the awards showcase talent across the Art, Book, Film, Fringe and International festivals in Edinburgh this summer 2025.

The List Festival Awards winners were announced at a ceremony on 22 August 2025 at Johnnie Walker Princes Street – The Label Studio, hosted by Michael Pedersen and Gemma Cairney.

The winners included artist Hamish Halley; author Michael Mullen; documentary-maker Paul Sng for Reality is Not Enough; Mary, Queen of Scots; KINDER; Small Town Boys; Christbride; Funz & Gamez Rebootz; Smile – The Story of Charlie Chaplin; Body Count; Hot Mess; and Pussy Riot.

Each List winner receives a cash award of £500, with the winner of The Sit-Up Award, which aims to help harness the power of theatre to achieve greater social impact, receiving £5000 and a slot on the 2025/26 Fringe Encore series.

The International Fringe Encore Series Edinburgh Prize receives a run at the SoHo Playhouse in New York including accommodation and travel plus financial support.

Supporters of The List Festival Awards include LNER, Ghost Light Global, Data Thistle, The Pitt, Dishoom, Edinburgh Marriott Hotel Holyrood, Set! Productions, Adelaide Fringe, Pure Life Plus and Johnnie Walker Princes Street.

The List Festival Awards 2025 nominees were announced on 18 August. The awards started in 2024, see the 2024 winners.

The List Festival Awards 2025 – Winners

ART – Best rising Scottish artist

Hamish Halley: Please Keep, The People’s Story Museum
Hamish Halley presents a poignant video piece that intertwines two narratives: the intimate act of cleaning his grandparents’ home after their passing and the monumental transition of the Perth Museum’s collection to a new space.

BOOKS – Best rising Scottish author

Michael Mullen
Goonie is the raw and joyful debut collection from award-winning Scottish poet and spoken word artist Michael Mullen exploring queerness through fierce lyrical poetry and celebrating Mullen’s beloved Scotland through vernacular vignettes.

FILM – Best Scottish film

Reality Is Not Enough, Paul Sng
This striking new film directed by Paul Sng pays a fittingly eclectic homage to acclaimed Scottish author Irvine Welsh with an approach that is richly detailed, playful and complex.

INTERNATIONAL – Best Show

Mary, Queen of Scots, Scottish Ballet
The fates of Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I are explored in this new Scottish Ballet epic which imagines a rich, resonant journey through memory, history and myth. This is punk meets haute couture.

FRINGE – LGBTQIA+ Award

Kinder, Ryan Stewart, Underbelly Cowgate
An unexpected call from a library derails a performance planned by newly arrived drag artist Goody Prostate, booked to headline a local reading hour, leading Goody to spiral into a chaotic exploration of childhood, memory, stories and what it means to truly grow up.

FRINGE – Best Dance, Circus & Physical Theatre Show

Small Town Boys, Shaper/Caper, Zoo Southside
Eight electrifying dancers bring the legendary Paradise Nightclub to life with a community cast, blurring the lines between performer and audience, encapsulating the joy and chaos of the club scene.

FRINGE – Best Comedy

Christbride, Bebe Cave, Pleasance Dome
In the dark, deathly world of the Middle Ages, one (annoying) woman strives to find the light, as Christbride, a female mystic in a world of male dullards, escapes from a life of monotony to one of misplaced devotion.

FRINGE – Best Kids

Funz & Gamez Rebootz, Phil Ellis, Monkey Barrel
The smash-hit, Edinburgh Comedy Award-winning Funz & Gamez is back with a brand-new show and fresh gang of ‘helpers’, led by host Phil Ellis, providing audiences with a hilarious kids hour that’s even more funz for adultz.

FRINGE – Best show from Adelaide

Smile – The Story Of Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Cole, Pleasance Courtyard
Charlie Chaplin, one of the greatest comedians of all time, is brought to the stage by dazzling performer Marcel Cole, for a one-hour treatment of The Little Tramp’s extraordinary life and career.

FRINGE – Sit-up Award

Body Count, Issy Knowles, Pleasance Courtyard
A one-woman dark comedy exploring the new era of sex work as a competitive sport, Body Count dives into the head and heart of one of society’s most vilified women, uncovering the person behind the tabloids and stripping away male fantasy to reveal the humanity beneath.

FRINGE – International Fringe Encore Series Edinburgh Prize

Hot Mess, James Ashfield, Pleasance Courtyard
Hot Mess stages the climate disaster as a messy, millennia-long breakup musical between Earth and Humanity. Unpredictable, political and deeply human, this year’s shortlist is a thrilling snapshot of writers redefining what theatre can do

FRINGE – Spirit of The Fringe Award

Pussy Riot, Summerhall
Pussy Riot need little introduction – the Russian protest art collective have one of the most important voices of the last 10 years, whose lyrical themes include feminism, LGBT rights and opposition to Vladimir Putin. They gained global notoriety in 2012 when three members, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were imprisoned for ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ for their performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The accompanying piece to Alyokhina’s memoir of the same name, the touring play Riot Days (Revolution), merges punk, electronica, theatre, documentary footage and protest.

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Main photo: The List Festival Awards 2025