Awards season has come early… Instagram is bringing back Rings, the award it launched last year for creators who take creative risks, and the 2026 judging panel is, a dinner party we’d sell a kidney to attend. Donatella Versace. A$AP Rocky. Chloé Zhao. FINNEAS. Isamaya Ffrench.
The premise is the same as last year: 25 winners, chosen by a panel of judges, each handed a real gold ring plus a very visible digital one on their profile.
The point is also the same. Where most awards reward the biggest personalities and the biggest audiences, Rings is for the people carving out their own corner of fashion, art, film, food, sport and music, whether they have 2,000 followers or 20 million.
What Is Instagram Rings?
Rings arrived in October 2025 as Instagram’s first creator award. The first 25 winners were an eclectic mix: Grammy-winning singer Laufey, British soul star Olivia Dean, Japanese photographer and director Mika Ninagawa, pro skateboarder Tyshawn Jones and Indian comedian-creator Dolly Singh all made the cut, with a judging panel that included Spike Lee, Marc Jacobs, KAWS and Marques Brownlee. Grace Wales Bonner designed the ring.
The idea, in Instagram’s words, is that the award “doesn’t celebrate one type of content. Rather, it honors this spirit, because taking chances is the spark that ignites creativity.” Instagram also says creativity, “isn’t just about the final output. It’s about relentlessly pursuing ideas, finding inspiration when there is none, overcoming self-doubt, and ultimately, embracing the messiness of this journey to express oneself.” Which, if you have ever deleted a Reel four seconds after posting it, you will understand.
The 2026 Rings Judges
The 2026 panel is made up of 14 tastemakers spanning fashion, film, music, art, food, sport and the internet itself. The full line-up, as confirmed by Instagram is:
- Donatella Versace, the woman, the myth, the Medusa.
- A$AP Rocky, rapper, Ray-Ban creative director and professional best-dressed man.
- Emily Adams Bode Aujla, founder of BODE and designer of this year’s ring.
- FINNEAS, Grammy-collecting producer, songwriter and Billie Eilish’s brother.
- Chloé Zhao, Oscar-winning director of Nomadland and Hamnet.
- Mikaela Shiffrin, the most decorated alpine skier in World Cup history.
- OSGEMEOS, the Brazilian twin street artists behind some of the most recognisable murals on the planet.
- Charm La’Donna, the choreographer behind Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show and Rosalía’s live shows.
- Will Welch, GQ’s global editorial director.
- Isamaya Ffrench, the make-up artist who turned beauty into performance art and then into her own brand.
- Vikas Khanna, Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur.
- Jack Edwards, the internet’s resident librarian and BookTube’s biggest name.
- Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram.
- Eva Chen, Instagram’s fashion partnerships lead and the app’s unofficial front row.
How it works: each judge nominates creators they think deserve the honour, then the whole panel votes to decide the final 25. “After all,” says Instagram, “who better to identify creative courage, craft and impact than the luminaries who do it and know it best?”
Why We Care:
Because the follower-count arms race is exhausting, and a platform-backed award that explicitly ignores it is, at the very least, a good story to tell the algorithm. Rings is Instagram putting its considerable weight behind the idea that taste, craft and nerve matter more than reach. It is also, let’s be honest, a very clever bit of brand-building: Instagram gets to position itself as a patron of the arts rather than a feed full of adverts, and winners get a status symbol that can’t be bought, which is the only kind worth having.
The judging panel tells you exactly who Instagram wants to be seen alongside. Versace and Rocky for fashion, Zhao and FINNEAS for film and music, Ffrench for beauty, Khanna for food, Shiffrin for sport, Edwards for the booksy girls. It’s a map of culture in 2026 drawn by the people who run the map.
The Ring Itself
Last year’s ring came from Grace Wales Bonner. This year, Instagram tapped Emily Adams Bode Aujla, the American designer whose label BODE turned antique quilts and heirloom textiles into one of the most coveted menswear brands going.
Her design is built around the idea of making your own luck. According to Instagram, Bode Aujla believes the creators being honoured share one trait: “they take bold creative chances, and that’s how they make their own luck – the same pattern psychologists find in people we deem ‘lucky,’ who create their own circumstances through intuition and exploration.”
So the 2026 ring is a gold signet set with a four-leaf clover cut from Connemara marble, the green stone quarried in the west of Ireland. “We can’t think of a more fitting symbol of recognition,” Instagram says. Neither can we. Also, we would like one.
What Winners Actually Get
Beyond the jewellery, winners get the digital version. When a Rings winner posts a Story, an exclusive gold ring appears around their profile picture in place of the usual Stories ring, across the app, on their profile and in the Stories tray in Feed. They can also customise their profile backdrop colour and, as of last year, put their own twist on the like button. In other words: like a verified blue tick but gold, shiny and round.
When Are The 2026 Rings Winners Announced?
Instagram says the full list of 25 winners will be revealed on Instagram later this month. We’ll bring you the names (and the inevitable “how did they miss her” discourse) as soon as it drops.
Until then, consider this your reminder that the messy, half-finished, slightly-too-weird Reel you’ve been sitting on posting is exactly the kind of thing a panel of Donatella Versace, A$AP Rocky and Chloé Zhao may be looking for. Make your own luck.
Images: @instagram’s Rings awards
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