The submission deadline for this year’s Hégető Honorka Award has been extended to 30 November. The award continues to welcome video and photography entries that portray important social issues and challenges, as well as responses and potential solutions, with sensitivity, authenticity and impact. The awards will be presented in January 2027.
Once again this year, the Hégető Honorka Award seeks to recognize newsrooms, journalists and photographers whose work helps foster a better understanding of social issues and shape public discourse.
This year’s competition places a special emphasis on climate change. Heat waves, dried-up rivers and lakes, wildfires, storms and flash floods – these phenomena have become part of our everyday experience, fundamentally reshaping our environment and way of life. The organizers also welcome entries that explore the social impacts of climate change and its consequences for our daily lives and future, whether from a sensitive, critical or personal perspective.
Entries must have been published on television or online platforms between 31 August 2025, and 31 August 2026. Applicants may submit videos, individual documentary photographs or photo series.
The jury will present awards in several categories. As in previous years, a Best First-Time Entrant Award will also be presented to a creator entering the Hégető Honorka Award competition for the first time whose work demonstrates outstanding quality.
The jury panel of the Hégető Honorka Award is chaired by Balázs Weyer, journalist. The jury members include Antónia Mészáros, Executive Director of UNICEF Hungary, and Krisztina Máté, television journalist and producer. The photography entries will be judged by András Bánkuti, photojournalist, founder of Mai Manó House – Hungarian House of Photography and Editor-in-Chief of Digitális Fotó Magazin, and Szilvia Mucsy, photographer, co-founder and director of the Budapest Photo Festival, and leader of RANDOM, a contemporary photography collective.
As a long-standing supporter of the award, Yettel is again offering a special award for an exceptional work. The company not only recognizes the work of journalists but also supports the cause highlighted by the award-winning piece, thereby underscoring the important role of the press in addressing significant social matters
The Hégető Honorka Award was established in 2003 in memory of the young RTL reporter who tragically lost her life in a car accident. Honorka Hégető’s work was marked by deep social sensitivity and empathy for the vulnerable and disadvantaged – values that continue to set the standard for the award today.
Terms and conditions:
Deadline for submissions: 30 November 2026, midnight
Format and scope:
• For videos: 5 to 30 minutes
• For individual photos: up to 3 photos per applicant
• For photo series: a series of 8 to 10 photos
Period for publication of competition entries: 31 August 2025 to 31 August 2026
The entry should include the following information:
• Name and contact details of entrant (phone number, e-mail address)
• Project title and synopsis
• Place and date of publication
Entries should be uploaded online to https://rtl.hu/hegetodij. Video entries must be submitted via a YouTube or Vimeo link.
For questions about the award programme, please contact: hegeto@rtl.com
The awards will be presented in January 2027.
Sponsors of the Hégető Honorka Award: RTL Hungary, the Hégető family, Yettel Hungary