Top London Art Prize Nominates MENA Artists

London’s CIRCA Art Prize returns for its 2025 edition and this year it has nominated nine artists with roots in the MENA region. The annual art prize nominates 30 artists each year from across the world to each transform both London’s iconic Piccadilly Circus lights Limes Kurfürstendamm screen and the in Berlin for one evening throughout September at 20:25. Audiences from across the globe can then vote online for their winner who will take home £10,000. There is an additional £30,000 and a public commission on offer, which will be decided by a jury of the art world’s biggest names.

This year’s prize had over 1,000 applicants from across 25 countries, with the finalists being chosen from a Curator’s Circle, which includes the region’s very own Amal Khalaf. To be eligible for the prize, the artist must be creating moving image art in response to the CIRCA manifesto of “REFUGIA”, which imagines sanctuaries of care and survival and draws on ecological refuges where life is endured through catastrophic climates.

Of the 30 nominees, a whopping nine have roots in the MENA region, covering everywhere from Morocco to Iraq. These artists are Adham Faramawy (Egypt), Aliaskar Abarkas (Iran), Farah Al-Qasimi (UAE), Caner Teker (Turkey), Valentin Noujaïm (Lebanon), Magid Magid (Somalia), Sarah Al-Sarraj (Iraq), Tarek Lakhrissi (Moroccan), and Zobayda (Egypt). This means for nine evenings in September, the centre of London and Berlin will be taken over by MENA-region artists.

The prize has a history of featuring MENA artists. The 2023 winner was Turkish artist Cemile Sahin, with previous nominees in past editions including Jala Wahid, Yalda Afsah, Yumna Al-Arashi, Akis Ka, and Gaby Sahhar, having a clear commitment to highlighting diverse voices across the art world.

The 2025 CIRCA prize will include films including Zobayda's ‘Ful/فُل’, as well as Tarek Lakhrissi's "Bright Heart". Other films to be screened include Farah Al-Qasimi's "Birds", Adham Faramawy's "A Proposal for a Parakeet", and Aliaskar Abarkas' "SCARED". Rounding out the MENA nominee presentations will be Caner Teker's "Remedy", Valentin Noujaïm's "Opera Omnia", Magid Magid's "Faith Amongst the Ruins", and Sarah Al-Sarraj's “Isthmus Ancient River”. The full schedule of the screenings can be found on CIRCA’s website, but it is interesting to see that Adham Faramawy and Zobayda start and end the presentations, with an Egyptian artist for the opening and closing of the films.

The CIRCA prize is generated by the #CIRCAECONOMY, where money is reinvested from the proceeds made by the sales of affordable art sold on CIRCA.ART into charitable causes, art education, public art commissions, and prizes. Since its launch in 2020, the initiative has raised over £1 million, placing communities and artists at the centre of an economy that continually reinvests in the future of art and culture.

With nearly a third of this year’s CIRCA prize nominees having roots in the MENA region, we are eager to see the results. You can vote online for the public winner until midnight BST on 30 September 2025. The winner will be revealed live on Monday 13 October 2025 at London’s Piccadilly Circus, with a special 30-minute award ceremony starting at 20:00 BST.

The nightly screenings will take place at London’s Piccadilly Circus between 20:25 and 20:28 BST, and between 20:25 and 20:28 CET at Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm between 1 and 30 September 2025.