The Siena International Photo Awards festival includes three competitions—the Siena International Photo Awards, the Creative Photo Awards, and the Drone Photo Awards—celebrating professional, amateur, and student work across broad facets of photography. A record 40,000 images were submitted from 163 countries, spanning ten categories from portraits to street photography, underscoring photography’s global reach. Winners for all three competitions will be announced on October 10, 2026, at the opening ceremony of the Siena festival. In parallel, the 18th Astronomy Photographer of the Year competition at the Royal Observatory Greenwich drew nearly 4,000 submissions from 769 photographers across 66 countries, featuring auroras, galaxies, and lunar landscapes. Judges emphasize the blend of technical excellence and artistic expression, with prizes totaling £10,000 for the overall winner and £1,500 for category winners. Together, these events highlight photography’s dual role as a documentary witness and a creative, boundary-pushing art form on a global stage.