Introducing The Cosplay Awards

Creative Cosplays Magazine
4 days ago
4 min read

A New Way to Celebrate the Community

Big news is finally here. After weeks of planning, conversations, and dreaming a little bigger than usual, we’re officially announcing

The Cosplay Awards — a brand-new awards ceremony built to celebrate the creativity, talent, and impact of the cosplay community.

This isn’t a cosplay contest that you'd find at a convention style event. It’s not about walking a stage or being judged in real time.

The Cosplay Awards is designed like a true awards show — focused on recognition, storytelling, and giving creators their moment.

Let’s break down what this is, why it exists, and what you can expect.

What Are The Cosplay Awards?

The Cosplay Awards is an annual awards ceremony created to honor cosplayers, photographers, digital artists, crafters, makers, and community leaders across the fandom space. It’s a place to recognize not just finished costumes, but the work, dedication, and creativity behind them and those who created them.

For its first year, the ceremony will premiere as a professionally produced virtual broadcast, allowing us to focus on quality, presentation, and storytelling — while making the show accessible to the entire community, no matter where you live.

Why Create The Cosplay Awards?

Cosplay has grown into something massive. It’s art. It’s performance. It’s craftsmanship. It's ingenuity. It's photography. It’s community. And yet, there hasn’t really been a dedicated awards show built for cosplay, designed with the same structure and respect you’d expect from a film, music, or gaming awards ceremony.

The Cosplay Awards exists to change that.

This is about giving creators recognition that feels meaningful. About slowing things down and saying, “This work matters.” About spotlighting people who inspire others, push boundaries, and elevate the community as a whole.

Who’s Behind It?

The Cosplay Awards is co-created by Creative Cosplays Magazine and Side Projekt Podcast — two platforms that have spent years highlighting creators, sharing stories, and supporting the cosplay community in different but complementary ways.

Creative Cosplays Magazine brings years of experience showcasing cosplay talent through publication, interviews, and visual storytelling.

Side Projekt Podcast brings a deep understanding of creator culture, conversation, and community impact. Together, the goal is simple: combine our platforms and build something that feels authentic, polished, and community-driven. To bring people together and celebrate each other.

How Does It Work?

The Cosplay Awards follows a clear, structured process:

Submissions open first. Anyone can submit — for themselves or on behalf of someone else — into the available categories.
Once submissions close, nominees are selected and announced.
From there, the community plays a role through public voting, alongside a judging process to ensure fairness, balance, and credibility.
The top nominees for each category are chosen to be then voted upon by our team of judges.
Finally, winners are revealed during the awards broadcast in December of 2026

This structure allows the community to be involved while still delivering a professional, awards-show experience.

What Can You Expect in Year One?

Year One is about setting the foundation. So no big red carpeted event...yet.

You can expect:

A clean, cinematic virtual awards premiere
Carefully curated categories that represent different parts of the cosplay world
A focus on presentation, pacing, and storytelling
A host, presenters, nominees, and winners — just like a traditional awards show
A tone that celebrates creativity without turning it into a competition floor

This first year is intentionally virtual so we can get it right, learn, grow, and build something sustainable.

The Award: The Cozzy

Every awards show needs a symbol — and for The Cosplay Awards, that symbol is

The Cozzy. The Official trophy of The Cosplay Awards

The Cozzy is a custom-designed trophy created specifically for this event. It represents creativity, transformation, and the many layers that make cosplay what it is. More than just a trophy, it’s meant to be a keepsake — something winners can proudly display as a marker of their impact on the community.

That's not the ONLY award that will be given out, as there may be plans for an additional special Creative Cosplays award in the making as well.

The Long-Term Vision

The Cosplay Awards isn’t a one-off event.

The long-term goal is to grow this into a respected annual tradition — one that evolves alongside the community. Future years may expand categories, introduce in-person elements, feature live audiences, and bring creators together in new ways.

But no matter how it grows, the heart of the show stays the same: recognizing creativity, effort, and community impact.

This Is Just the Beginning

The Cosplay Awards is being built with intention, care, and a lot of love for this community. Whether you’re a cosplayer, photographer, artist, builder, or fan — this is for you.

Want to Be Part of It?

If this sounds like something you want to support, participate in, or help shape — you absolutely can.

Are you a creator who deserves recognition, or do you know someone whose work should be seen? Interested in helping guide the process and support fairness and credibility?

Submissions for this year are NOW OPEN for Nominees, Judges, and Sponsor/Partnership Opportunities, and we can’t wait to see the talent that gets brought forward.

And if you want to stay in the loop as everything unfolds — from category announcements and submission dates to nominee reveals, voting, and the final broadcast — subscribing is the best way to do it. Subscribers will receive important updates throughout the year for both The Cosplay Awards and Creative Cosplays Magazine, making sure you never miss a key moment.

This is just the beginning, and there’s a lot more to come.

Welcome to The Cosplay Awards.

This is your moment.