Instagram is bringing its in-house creator awards program back for a second year: Instagram Rings.
Rings will once again see an all-star panel of judges nominate and select winning creators from across the platform, spanning all types of genres and content, with the winners receiving a physical gold ring designed by Emily Adams Bode Aujla (who is also a judge) as well as special digital creative tools that they can use to distinguish their Instagram profiles.
The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the 2026 Rings judges panel will include fashion icon Donatella Versace, A$AP Rocky, designer Emily Adams Bode Aujla, Finneas, director Chloé Zhao, professional skier Mikaela Shiffrin, artists OSGEMEOS, head of Instagram Adam Mosseri, dancer and choreographer Charm La’Donna, Instagram head of fashion partnerships Eva Chen, GQ editor-in-chief Will Welch, makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench, chef Vikas Khanna, and creator Jack Edwards.
“We really wanted to have this like global mix of people who are moving culture forward in their respective fields and beyond,” Chen tells THR. “It’s people we think that are doing interesting things in the world as well as on Instagram, and who’ve charted their own course.”
Chen says that the judges will be both nominating and selecting the winners,
“I love watching the conversations where it’s like actors on actors, icons on icons, and that’s kind of the approach we took,” Chen says. “[The winners are] artists who are on their way to becoming iconic in their fields, chosen by like fellow icons, and so it’s not chosen by an algorithm, it is chosen by people in the fields and who are out there in the world who are discovering and inspired by like what their peers are doing on Instagram, and so the thing that we are not centering this around is follower count.”
As for what changes the Rings program will in its second year, Chen says that they wanted to complement the physical ring with more of a digital presence, expanding beyonf the gold ring around their profile to include other things.
And longer-term, Instagram wants to build an entire community around Rings, seeing as the honorees will be different year after year. Chen notes that the pool of winners will rise from 25 last year to 50 this year.
“One of our goals for this program, is year-over-year for you to feel like you are part of this like community of people, and so to me, this program will be a success if a year one winner like strikes up a conversation with a year two winner, and they exchange numbers or they start DMing and they collab on something together,” Chen says. “That sense of connection and community is one of I think the goals for this program. Every year the pool is going to increase, and so hopefully with this year we’re able to start forging those connections and creating that sense of feeling of like you’re part of this group of people who have been recognized.”
Instagram will announce this year’s Rings honorees later this month.