About the award

The world’s most prestigious theatre awards aims to honour an individual, an institution or organisation that has brought a new artistic dimension to the world of drama or theatre.

Ibsen looking into the camera

The winner is decided by a committee and announced every two years on Ibsen’s birthday. The award ceremony takes place during the International Ibsen Festival at the National Theatre in Oslo in September. The winner is invited to take part in a symposium at the National Theatre during the festival.

THE PRIZE AND NOMINATIONS

The Norwegian government founded the award in 2007 and funds it. The winner receives 2,5 million Norwegian kroner (approx. 300.000 US Dollars). There are no conditions attached to accepting the prize, and anyone can nominate candidates for the International Ibsen Award. Nominations are strictly confidential both before and after the prize winner is announced.

CRITERIA

In a world too often positioned through the ‘for’ and ‘against’, The International Ibsen Award 2026 rewards the imagining of theatre as the space inbetween – as a site for assembly, a place to envision and inspire what we might not yet know. The practice of theatre made through compassion and kindness, so critically needed for our times. The experience of art as a reminder of the human capacity to nurture and share beauty, hope and joy, as new ways of being and seeing. Theatre forging time and space for the reflection of the on going quiet works that are democracy in action.

PREVIOUS WINNERS

The International Ibsen Award has since been given to:

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