The judging for the Photo Academy Award 2009 took place on Thursday 2 July. This international photography competition is open to final-year students on all Dutch and Flemish photography degree courses and qualified photographers who graduated in the Netherlands or Flanders within the last year. Students and former students of the Photo Academy, St. Joost, HKU and KABK submitted work in large numbers. The number of Belgian entries – which accounted for a quarter of the total – from KHLIM (Ghent), St. Lucas (Brussels), Karel de Grote (Antwerp) and others, was considerably higher than in previous years. The entries – a record number, at over 2000 in total – were judged by jury chairman Hans Aarsman and a panel of experts, who were all delighted at the high standard of the work submitted. The jury members were Jochem Rijlaarsdam (GUP Magazine), Inge Henneman (FoMu Antwerp), Merel Kokhuis (Frame Magazine), Theo Audenaerd (Volkskrant Magazine), Sofie Stevens (de Standaard), Edie Peters (P/f), Bram Holzapfel (Let’s Be Frank), Caroline Brugman (ELLE), Suzanne Dechert (Melkweg Galerie), Ingrid Deuss (Duval Guillaume) and Cor Kommers (HEMA).