Aanika Pai is an emerging young musician who has already gained international experience within the music industry. She has performed at NAMM, the annual music industry trade fair in Southern California, representing and performing for Brazilian guitar brand Tagima Guitars in both 2025 and 2026. She has also performed live in front of renowned guitarists including Kiko Loureiro, Guthrie Govan and Matthias Eklundh, and performed at Gibraltar’s 2025 New Year’s Eve Concert. In 2026, she is attending Freak Guitar Camp in Sweden and plans to attend Guitar Summit in Mannheim, Germany. She recently released her first single, ‘Inception’, and was also featured on Darrell Craig Harris’s Music Matters podcast.

 

Oceana Payne is a young dancer with a record of competition success and scholarship achievements. She was the Overall Solo Winner at DWC Gibraltar 2025 and won the Starpower Title for Ages 12–14, as well as Best Junior at Dance Unit Spain 2026, where she was also nominated for and won Dancer of the Year Juniors. In 2025, she became the first dancer ever to receive full marks at Dance Unit Spain, and also won Gold and 1st Place with her solo ‘Bang Bang’ at GDO. Her achievements include winning a lifetime scholarship from Abby Lee Miller for her ‘Bang Bang’ solo, as well as scholarships from Starp Park Dance, Hope Intensive and Elite Acro Dance Associates.

 

Anna Pecino is a young dancer with a record of competition achievements. At DWC 2025, she won Gold in the Junior Large Group and Overall category, three Silver medals for Jazz Trio and a Bronze, as well as being a joint Junior Winner at the Choreography Competition. At Dreaming Dance World Cup Andalucia 2022, she was named Best Junior Female and achieved the highest score of the competition for her Contemporary Solo. She was also recognised at the 2026 DWC qualifiers with Most Outstanding Trio and Most Outstanding Small and Large Group awards. Her achievements include being nominated for Dancer of the Year at Dance Unit Spain 2026, receiving Outstanding Awards for her Contemporary Solo and three groups, winning the Judges’ Choice Award ‘We Love You’ at Starpower International, and being named Overall Soloist at GNDO 2025.

 

Hannah Cavilla Latin is a young artist currently studying at Edinburgh College of Art. She was the Overall Winner of the Spring Visual Arts Competition 2026 and also received the Video Award. Her previous achievements include the Sovereign Art Award for Best Young Artist in 2023 and a Highly Commended recognition at the Gibraltar International Art Competition 2025. She also collaborated on a project which received the Graduate Award from Visual Arts Scotland and the ECA Moving Image Award.

 

Sebastian Diaz is a 17-year-old dancer who made his West End debut as part of the dance company in Sea Witch at Theatre Royal Drury Lane in March 2026. He also performed on the MOVE IT! Main Stage in 2026. His earlier achievements include being nominated for Dancer of the Globe and receiving the C.Y.D. College Audition Gold Card at the Global Dance Open Gibraltar qualifiers in 2023, where he also achieved multiple podium finishes in solo and group categories.

 

Lewis Llamas is a young dancer who has achieved significant international success representing Gibraltar. In 2025, he was crowned IDO World Showdance Champion, following his success as Vice World Champion at the Dance World Cup Finals in 2024. He was also named Best Male Dancer at the Gibraltar International Dance Festival 2026. Representing Gibraltar at the Sussex Festival for Performing Arts in 2026, he won Gold in Contemporary with a score of 98. His achievements also include success at the 24 Seven Dance Convention in Boston 2025, the M.O. Productions Supreme Award 2025, alongside numerous scholarships and industry opportunities.

 

Tryone Vera is a young Gibraltarian artist whose work has received recognition across a number of local competitions. He was awarded the Sculpture Award at the Spring Visual Arts Competition 2026 for Echoes of Silence, also winning Second Prize at the Sovereign Young Arts Competition 2026. He was previously named Best Young Artist at the Gibraltar International Art Exhibition 2025 for Where No Voices Reach and received Second Prize at the Our Gibraltar competition in 2025 for Shifted Ground. He has also been selected to design the Gibraltar Cultural Award Trophies for 2026/27. He has also exhibited work as part of his postgraduate studies and has received numerous awards in local art competitions.

 

Kayleigh Buttigieg is a Gibraltarian artist and qualified architect whose work has received both national and international recognition. She received two awards at the Royal Miniature Society Annual Exhibition 2025 in London, where all five of her submitted works were selected and sold. In 2026, she completed a commission for His Excellency the Governor, creating a copy of a portrait of Richard Ellison, an ancestor of Lady Bathurst. She has also been a finalist in Portraiture at the Art Renewal Centre International Salon Competition, with her work exhibited at Oaten Hill Gallery in Canterbury.

 

Molly McElwee is an award-winning Gibraltarian sports journalist and author specialising in women’s sport and tennis. She spent over five years as a sportswriter for The Daily Telegraph and has contributed to The Guardian, The Observer and Financial Times. In 2024, she won the Tom Perrotta Prize for excellence in tennis journalism. In 2025, she returned to Gibraltar as an author at the Gibunco Gibraltar Literary Festival, presenting her book Building Champions: Paths to Success in Women’s Tennis and delivering workshops as part of the Festival’s schools programme.

 

For almost 40 years, Lillian and Lauren Montero have shaped Gibraltar’s dance community through Stylos Dance Studios, nurturing generations of dancers and representing Gibraltar internationally. Their dancers have achieved major success at competitions including the Dance World Cup, while Lauren has received numerous Best Choreography awards and international recognition as a choreographer, teacher and adjudicator. Together, they have also contributed to countless cultural, national and charitable events in Gibraltar, inspiring young dancers and helping establish Gibraltar as a force in international dance.

 

Alan Perez is a multidisciplinary artist whose recent work explores themes of conflict, borders, memory and identity. His interdisciplinary project Conflict, Chaos and Reality was presented at GEMA in 2025  and concluded with an outdoor installation as part of the No Cuesta d’Enero programme in 2026. He also developed Gibtaku: Traces of the Past and Present, a cross-border project bringing together students from Gibraltar, Cádiz and La Línea to explore the frontier through art in 2026. Alan was also selected for the Traces of Humanity exhibition, with his work exhibited in the UK and Gibraltar in 2026.

 

Lucinda Snape, a radio presenter at GBC, created the Born on the Rock podcast in 2024 to document the birth stories of families across Gibraltar. With nearly 60 personal accounts recorded, the podcast has developed into a unique oral history of Gibraltar, preserving experiences of birth, family life, loss, resilience and changing maternity care. Lucinda researches, records, edits and produces each episode herself, creating a trusted space for families to share their stories and helping preserve these personal experiences as part of Gibraltar’s cultural heritage.

 

St Anne’s School received the Nautilus Project Overall School Award 2026 for its outstanding commitment to marine conservation and environmental awareness. The school organised a whole-school awareness campaign marking the Nautilus Project’s 10th anniversary, including an awareness walk, student speeches, performances, posters and public information materials promoting ocean protection. Pupils also appeared on GBC Radio and created QR-code posters promoting the Nemo App, extending their campaign into the wider community.

 

Palabras al Viento by Alice Mascarenhas MBE is a tribute to her late father, Gibraltarian journalist and broadcaster Manolo Mascarenhas. Launched at Grand Battery House in October 2025, the book brings together his journalism and broadcasting career from 1946 to 1972, with a particular focus on his influential Palabras al Viento programme on Radio Gibraltar, which aired weekly from 1965 to 1970 during the increasingly tense years leading to the 1969 frontier closure. Of the 260 broadcasts produced, 48 of the 50 surviving recordings are included in the publication. The programme became an important voice for Gibraltar, helping maintain community morale and preserve the experiences and identity of Gibraltarians during a period of political tension and uncertainty.

 

The Gibraltar Horticultural Society’s Urban Oasis Award is a creative competition encouraging individuals, communities and businesses to transform balconies, windowsills, terraces and other spaces into vibrant green areas. Organised by the Gibraltar Horticultural Society and Gibraltar Sustainable Buildings Group, in partnership with the Ministry for the Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change & Heritage, the competition promotes creativity, biodiversity and greener urban spaces. In 2026, the Montagu Office in Irish Town won first prize in the Office category.