Every April, the drone photography world gets its equivalent of the Oscars. DJI and SkyPixel have announced the winners of the 11th Annual SkyPixel Photo and Video Contest — and as always, the results are a useful snapshot of where aerial and handheld visual storytelling is right now.
The 2025 contest attracted nearly 140,000 entries from around the globe. This year’s 11th edition drew nearly 95,000 submissions from 96 countries — a smaller raw number than last year, but spread across a slightly more focused, DJI-gear-required competition format. The prize pool this year topped $200,000.
The contest has come a long way from its origins. SkyPixel has been around since 2014 as a way for drone pilots to upload, organize and share their work, and the platform now claims more than 55 million registered users from 140 countries.
Here’s a look at this year’s winners.
Best Aerial Video: Africa Unseen by ellisvanjason
The top aerial video prize went to “Africa Unseen” by ellisvanjason — a seven-minute cinematic portrait of Africa’s landscapes and wildlife that the creator describes as his final large-scale passion project.
The creator used a comprehensive suite of DJI tools including the Avata 2, Inspire 3, Mavic 3 Pro, Ronin 4D, RS 4 Pro, and DJI Focus Pro, drawing from over 35TB of cinematic-grade 8K footage. The result moves from sweeping desert vistas to grasslands and dramatic canyons, with FPV sequences placing viewers alongside wildlife in motion in a way that traditional cinematic drone work rarely achieves.
Judge Zeng Jian noted the film’s “precise composition and strong visual control,” calling out its high level of professionalism. Ryan Hosking praised the “beautiful color work and excellent use of DJI technology.” Benjamin Hardman called it “one of the most cinematic works in the competition” for its color, composition, and narrative impact.
The FPV sequences alongside wildlife stand out, proving that filmmakers can do not just wide establishing shots from a camera drone, but immersive first-person perspectives that put the viewer inside the scene. With the Antigravity A1 and DJI Avata 360 now available, expect that trend to accelerate considerably in next year’s submissions.
Best Handheld Video: Elsewhere The Gaze Can Always Arrive by AYANG
The Handheld category — introduced for the first time in the 2025 contest as a nod to DJI’s Osmo line and expanded this year to include 360-degree camera perspectives — went to AYANG for “Elsewhere The Gaze Can Always Arrive,” praised for its poetic narrative and integration of aerial and ground footage.
Judge Ryan Hosking noted the “great use of a variety of shots and composition to help tell the story well,” with a uniform look that makes the piece feel complete. Judge Benjamin Hardman praised the “beautiful storyline and creative shot types” and the mix of tight and wide shots that draw the viewer in.
Best Photo: The Gate by Filip Hrebenda
The photography grand prize went to Filip Hrebenda for “The Gate” — a composition that uses a natural rock bridge as a framing device, with a lone human figure providing scale against atmospheric fog and background peaks.
Judge Daniel Kordan called out the “clean and well-balanced composition with rare environmental conditions that create a unique and unforgettable scene.” Jiang Ping highlighted the “interplay of light, shadow, and mist” building a powerful sense of depth. Jake Guzman noted that the rock bridge functions as “a powerful focal point, with the lone subject adding scale,” while the mist “beautifully softens the background peaks, creating depth and separation while maintaining a cohesive tone.”
Other notable winners
Among the Top 10 photos, two stood out:
Carpet Fields by F. Dilek Yurdakul — a top-down composition of red agricultural fields whose rhythmic repetition transforms landscape into pattern. Daniel Kordan praised the “strong use of pattern and scale,” while Zhu Jiong described it as a “vivid and symbolic red sea.”
Smoking Skull by Daniel — a volcanic shot capturing a naturally occurring skull formation in smoke and ash. Drone timing photography of geological phenomena has been a consistent thread in SkyPixel contests for years, and this is among the better executions of it. Jiang Ping noted the “symbolic power and rarity of the scene”; Zhu Jiong called it “surreal and theatrical, revealing the hidden character of nature through aerial perspective.”
What this year’s winners tell us
A few trends are worth noting across the 2026 winners compared to last year’s field and the year before.
- The winning aerial video this year is more ambitious in scope and production scale than recent winners. It required 35TB of footage, multiple drone platforms and FPV sequences integrated with cinematic work. The bar for what constitutes a winning aerial video is clearly rising, which reflects both better tools and a more sophisticated creative community.
- The handheld category is maturing quickly. In its second year it already produced work that stands alongside the aerial entries in craft and intentionality. This is worth watching for anyone who thinks of DJI primarily as a drone company. After all, the Ronin and Osmo ecosystems are producing serious creative work.
- The best photo this year meanwhile stands as a counterpoint to the spectacle-first approach that dominated early aerial photography contests. The judges are clearly rewarding restraint and compositional intelligence alongside technical achievement.
The full gallery of winners is available at skypixel.com/contests/2025.
The post The best drone photos and videos of 2026, according to SkyPixel appeared first on The Drone Girl.