Biennials are competitions between countries with Operational Members that are members of FIAP.
Individuals interested in participating should approach the FIAP affiliated organization within their country to seek information about their country’s process for selecting photos to represent their country in this events.

31st FIAP Colour Biennial – Ireland 2025

We invite all federations members of FIAP to participate in the next Colour Biennial
Closing Date: 1st September 2025
Registration is open. Click here to participate
Judging date: 18th October 2025
Participation is only open to FIAP Operational Members

42nd FIAP Youth Biennial – Bahrain 2025 

We invite all federations members of FIAP to participate in the next Colour Biennial
Closing Date: 7th September 2025
Registration is open. Click here to participate 
Judging date: 30th September 2025
Participation is only open to FIAP Operational Members

23rd FIAP Nature Biennial – South Africa 2026 

We invite all federations members of FIAP to participate in the next Colour Biennial
Closing Date: 15th November 2025
Registration and upload will start on 20th September 2025
Judging date: 10th February 2026
Participation is only open to FIAP Operational Members

Biennials are one of the most important events offered by FIAP. They are organised every two years in a different member country. Even years for Black and White and Nature Biennials, odd years for the Colour and Youth Biennials.

The Black and White, the Colour and the Nature Biennials have a very particular characteristic, different from the international contests. It is not only the quality of the individual work that counts, but FIAP ask for coherent collections, as well of the viewpoint of inspiration and conception as form the viewpoint of execution and presentation. The judgement of the collections is made in two steps: 
1) the judgement of each work of the collection
2) the global judgement of the collection.
The collection obtaining the highest score by the addition of the points of the first and the second judgment, wins the  World Cup of the corresponding Biennial. Individual awards are also granted to the best works, regardless of the federation classification.   

Special Prizes:
GRAND PRIZE "DR. M. VAN DE WIJER TROPHY"
The Federation which obtains the best overall result in the combination of the Black & White Biennial and the two sections (prints and digital) of the Colour Biennial wins the Grand Prize Dr. M. Van de Wijer Trophy.
NATURE GRAND PRIZE "ODETTE BRETSCHER TROPHY"
The federation which obtains the best overall result in the combination of the two sections (prints and digital) of the Nature Biennial wins the Nature Grand Prize Odette Bretscher Trophy.   

The Youth Biennial consists of two age categories.
Category I: for participants under 16 years of age
Category II: for participants under 25 years of age
This Biennial does not require the coherence of the submitted works. The winner is the federation that obtains the highest score by adding up the points of the individual works. Individual awards are also granted to the best works, regardless of the federation classification.

For more information with results and statistics of previous Biennials please click here.